Innocence
by Shilyn
Summary: Companion to Runaway, WOAWO, and Hanyou. Naraku has been dead for 20 years. IY's innocent son Koinu is in love with Miroku's pervert daughter Kasai. Koinu lives under his father's shadow, Kasai with the groping hand, and Inuyasha faces a midlife crisis...
1. Prologue: And the Biggest Pervert is

A/N: To my usual readers...I apologize. I intended to wait to post this new story. But with recent events I wanted a pick-me-up, and hearing from you all always does that for me. I need the distraction. My boyfriend of nearly 2 years has recently become very active in evangelism and such. We go to colleges a few hours apart. I found a ride for him, perfect for him to come and visit me. He refused on account of having to stay for church events. I now come second place. When we fought about this he eventually became so angry when I said I didn't want to talk about it anymore, he called me "Godless" and said the people around me were also "Godless" and that I was on an "emo tangent." I'm not in the least bit "emo" so that was laughable. But Godless?? I am most insulted, most wounded. So now I'm giving him the silent treatment. Supposedly he misses me a lot, but just couldn't get away from these things (seemed lame to me, I want him to honor his commitment to me too!) So he can have this weekend alone and I hope it hurts like a paper cut. Oh, that was mean. But yes, so to keep myself away from trying to talk to that ingrateful moron, I turned to you all and to FFnet. I hope this pleases you, tho I will likely not update it until after _Runaway_ is finished.

* * *

Author's Note: this story continues a storyline/universe that I began in my fic _So much For the Hanyou's Happy Ending, With Our Arms Wide Open, _and _Runaway._ Naraku has been destroyed, Miroku and Sango married almost immediately afterward. Inuyasha and Kagome followed a few years after them, before the birth of their first child, son Koinu.

Hanyou are essentially hybrids. By definition hybrids in animals are mostly infertile. This has been a running theme throughout these stories, though it may not be featured as much in this one. For Inuyasha there is a catch, on the new moon he is human and fertile (_So Much For the Hanyou's Happy Ending)_. Sesshomaru, as the lord of the Western Lands, encountered this problem when he took Rin as a mate. Their children would be unfit as heirs, unable to continue the line as infertile hanyou. So he took an inuyoukai behind Rin's back as a wife to produce his heirs (_Runaway)_.

Miroku and Sango (In _Runaway)_ have four children: Kohimu, Tisoki, Kasai, and Masuyo the baby. All boys but Kasai. Inuyasha and Kagome (Also in _Runaway)_ had son Koinu and daughter Akisame. Shippo has grown and become partially independent, also he has an ability to jump, site-to-site, a sort of teleportation.

This story takes place about two decades after the fall of Naraku, and about ten years after the events of _Runaway._

Disclaimer: Nope, I only own the children, and Sesshomaru's wife.

* * *

**Prologue: And the Biggest Pervert is…**

The salamander gave a wet, slurping roar, and charged toward Inuyasha. Its tail thrashed from side to side, sending massive, rippling waves through the scummy pond water. Inuyasha grunted and leaped clear of the creature's charge, into the branches of a tree. The braches dangled precariously over the pond and the hanyou realized swiftly that he was going to have to move from this perch. The salamander was at least twenty feet long and very angry to boot. If its tail could turn the pond into the upside down, muddy slurry that it had, it could certainly knock him out of the tree.

The massive salamander—a dark, ugly purple color, like an old bruise—lashed its thick, ridged tail at the base of the tree, hissing wetly.

Inuyasha jumped again, landing on the ground as the tail smashed into the tree trunk, halfway splintering it. The tree lurched and toppled, its branches touching the muddy pond water. The thing was so blind that it waddled forward to the braches and opened its rounded, gaping mouth to gnaw on the branches, hoping to get a mouthful of hanyou instead. Its fish-like black eyes had a dull, brainless shine.

Inuyasha paused several feet away, his face cast tightly in a frown. One clawed hand was at his waist, but it closed on nothing but air. He scowled even more deeply then. _Of course_ he didn't have the sword. The whole point of this engagement had been for Koinu, his son, and for Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai too.

An arrow streaked over the pond, slamming into the salamander's side. It wheeled away from the tree and into the water, roaring with its thick, gurgling voice.

The arrow was from Kohimu, Miroku's firstborn son. The young man—he was almost seventeen—carried a massive bow and quiver of long, thick arrows over his shoulder. As the salamander raced for him, tracking the arrow, Kohimu hurried away on foot, deftly. He had the agility and athleticism of both parents. The arm he used for drawing the bow—his left because he was left-handed—was immense and bulky with muscle.

The salamander was too stupid and too blind to track Kohimu—he'd retreated too fast. It emerged from the muddy water, bubbling and gurgling with rage. It was bleeding heavily from one side where the arrow had penetrated it, but seemingly the creature was unaffected by the wound or the blood loss. It swung its broad, circular head over the pond's shore, searching and snuffling for a scent. It blinked its black eyes like a frog.

Kohimu had retreated into the brush to stand beside his younger brother, Tisoki. They worked together now, Kohimu holding one of his arrows and notching it, while Tisoki hefted a sickle with a chain on the end. Tisoki let the sickle fly and it caught the salamander in what amounted to his shoulder. The creature squealed and rolled, trying to get away. Tisoki, still holding the chain, let it slip through his fingers as the salamander rolled. Kohimu frowned at his side, trying to get an aim on the monster's head.

Miroku and Sango waited tensely just behind their sons, watching them with a mixture of nervousness and pride. This salamander had been troubling a nearby village for some time now, but only recently had the villagers gathered up enough money, food, and other valuable things to pay for the extermination. Miroku handled those details, setting a price as he deemed was proper.

In this case the villagers could've called them a lot sooner, whether they had the usual payment or not. The salamander had been destroying their farms, eating their animals, and in some cases, even the children and the elderly, anyone not able to outrun it during an attack at night, the time it favored for raiding the village.

In a fight years ago with this creature, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, and Kagome would've hardly batted an eye at the monster. They would've stepped back and let Inuyasha come forward, brandishing a hungry, transformed Tetsusaiga.

No longer, now they were throwing their children to the salamander, seeing how they would fare. So far Tisoki and Kohimu were proving themselves flawlessly. Miroku and Sango could beam proudly behind their two eldest children, assured that they had raised survivors and respectable demon slayers. Inuyasha cast a glance nervously to his far left where Kasai and Koinu were tensed and ready for battle. Then his ears flattened as he realized they weren't ready for battle.

They were bickering, as usual.

Kasai was the third born child of Miroku and Sango. Tisoki was fast approaching sixteen years old, and Kasai, born a little more than two years after him, was somewhere between thirteen and fourteen. Koinu, at her side, was precisely nine months younger, about thirteen. Looking at them, however, Inuyasha wouldn't have guessed it. Kasai had reached what would likely be her full height, while Koinu was still growing. He was shorter than her by an inch or two, much to his shame. Puberty had turned the two childhood friends, as close often as siblings, into outright rivals.

Normally Inuyasha found it amusing or annoying to see his son fighting with Kasai—because usually Koinu was peaceable and calm, much like his mother—but now it was disrupting their training and _endangering their lives._

His ears laid flat with irritation.

The salamander splashed loudly into the water and the chain slipped from Tisoki's hands. The young man cursed and turned to his side, fumbling through the brush for his backup weapons.

Kohimu's brown eyes were narrowed, concentrating. He was very skilled with his bow, but the salamander was half-underwater and moving too rapidly for him to get a fix on it. He lowered the bow and, for the first time, his expression changed to one of uncertainty.

The salamander thrashed through the water and emerged on the other side of the pond. It was howling now, high and keening but with a deep gurgling just beneath that, as if it had pond muck stuck to its vocal cords. Blood poured from where the sickle had dug into its shoulder, leaving a wide, ugly gash in its cold blooded flesh.

It barreled in the opposite direction from Kohimu and Tisoki's combined attack…that happened to be where Kasai and Koinu were waiting, armed—but distracted by their petty bickering.

Inuyasha gritted his teeth and started moving even as he shouted a warning, "Koinu! Kasai! _Move!"_

* * *

_A few moments previously…_

Koinu watched his father leap to the tree and he tensed, holding the heavy Tetsusaiga in front of him, readied. He could feel the power inside the blade, but only dimly. Inuyasha had struggled to teach his son the basics of the sword in the last year or so, since Koinu had begun growing more rapidly and losing his baby fat—as his hormones changed his scent and announced that he was moving into puberty. Koinu had touched the Tetsusaiga before, but hadn't been able to transform it. To his father, transforming the blade was second nature, like breathing, like blinking. To Koinu it was new and frustrating, just like everything else that _maturity,_ _puberty,_ and all of those other words that described growing up entailed.

The salamander slammed his tail into the tree, but Inuyasha had already jumped clear of the damage. He landed some feet in front of them, tossing them a quick look of concern before he ran beyond them, trying to lose the salamander's attention.

Koinu watched his father admiringly for a moment, then found his eyes drawn back to the salamander and the pond. Kohimu's arrow struck the salamander, making it rush into the pond after him.

"Kohimu is a jerk." Kasai announced at his side in a huffy, irritable voice. "He hogs all the action with that bow."

Koinu shrugged his shoulders loosely. "He's good with it."

She sighed, rolling her eyes when Koinu turned to look back at her. "I could do it just as well if I were a man!"

"But you're not." Koinu stated the obvious, looking back at the fight again. The salamander was on the opposite side of the pond, snuffling, searching for Kohimu's scent.

"Ha!" Kasai shouted, jabbing a finger at Koinu. The dog-eared boy glanced back at her, cocking his head to one side as she started on her tirade. "Neither are you, Son of Dog."

Koinu scowled, ears flattening for a moment. "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I'm not hu_man._"

There was a strange, dark glint in Kasai's otherwise light, violet eyes. Koinu felt a slight twisting in his gut when he noticed it. Since Kasai had grown just that little bit taller than him, Koinu had noticed a significant change in her that both intrigued and intimidated him. She picked on him more, in fact she fought more with everyone around her. Her scent had changed—so had the shape of her body. Against his will, almost instinctually, Koinu found his eyes drawn to that changed body more and more.

The look in her eyes now made him tense. It was mischievousness, and…something else he couldn't read very well.

"That's not what I meant." She smirked, knowingly. "You're still a boy, you wouldn't understand."

He scowled openly, realizing that she was goading him, challenging him. Koinu wasn't completely naïve, he had a powerful sense of smell, and he'd listened to Shippo as well as Kohimu and especially Tisoki for years. Yet he wasn't one to expose what he knew, he was shy as both his parents had been of the subject when it related back to them, personally.

"Shows what you know." He grumbled, trying to turn his eyes back to the battle. Tisoki had thrown the sickle out and caught the salamander with it. Koinu felt a spurt of regret and relief at once, it appeared that he and Kasai wouldn't be involved in this fight. He had an image of himself trying to use Tetsusaiga and obliterating Miroku, Sango, Kohimu, and Tisoki right along with the salamander. He sighed and let Tetsusaiga shrink, sheathing it.

Something latched onto Koinu's lower back and then actually fell to his butt, squeezing.

Yelping, he jumped away, whirling to face Kasai with wide, almost terrified eyes. His mouth fell open, opening and closing on the air like a fish.

Kasai raised her hands in a defensive motion, her cheeks were bright pink. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she crossed her arms over her chest then and looked toward the sky. "There was a horsefly. They can bite through clothes you know." She was blushing down to her neck.

For one of the first times in his short life, Koinu felt _rage_ bubbling up through him. Rage and something else he couldn't identify. Actually, many somethings he couldn't identify. Shock, confusion, and most of all, embarrassment. The emotions were foreign, powerful. His white dog ears shook, his blue eyes narrowed dangerously, mimicking his father unconsciously. Words came to his tongue and he blurted them without thought. "What the hell's the _matter_ with you? _Why_ would you _do _that?"

"To see the look on your face!" Kasai stammered, smiling and wringing her hands together nervously.

Koinu opened his mouth to shout the infamous single word that was most often repeated when describing Miroku's family, _"Hent—"_

He was never allowed to finish, for in that moment Inuyasha landed between them roughly, his face marred thickly by a scowl. He reached with one arm for Koinu, and with the other he snatched up Kasai. Koinu yelped and pulled away from his father, leaping away on his own legs, but Kasai allowed herself to be scooped up and carried away.

Mere microseconds later the salamander barreled right through where they'd been standing. Koinu watched the demon from just a short leap away before following Inuyasha to stand closer to Miroku and Sango. Kohimu and Tisoku raced forward, shouting at the salamander, trying to regain its attention.

"That was close!" Koinu announced, smiling broadly at the adults. He looked toward his father and began to thank him, but Inuyasha growled at him and pushed Kasai roughly at Miroku and Sango.

"You both almost got yourselves killed!" he snarled, ears flattening. "And what were you doing? _Fucking talking!"_

Koinu felt his face heat up, "Dad…"

It was a mistake speaking to Inuyasha directly. With his jaw squared and his lips pursed, the hanyou reached one clawed hand at Koinu and demanded, "Hand over the Tetsusaiga."

Koinu's ears drooped at once but he reached obediently to his belt and began fumbling with the ties. As he lifted the blade upward, free of his belt now, he started to apologize, "I'm s—"

But Inuyasha ignored him and took the sword gruffly, tying it to his belt without a word. He was so angry that Koinu could see his white ears shaking, quivering with the suppressed rage just underneath.

"Why weren't you watching the salamander?" Sango was asking Kasai, shaking her head in dismay.

Kasai laughed nervously, sounding very much like her father would've almost two decades previously. "I was just…sloppy, Mom. I'll be more vigilant next time, I promise."

When Sango continued eyeing her daughter doubtfully, Miroku cut in. "Sango, if Kasai says she'll be more careful next time, than she will be. She's alive, that's what's really important." He grinned proudly at Kasai and pulled her close, protective and affectionate at once.

Inuyasha glanced at the exchange, scowling for a moment before locking his gaze with Sango. They exchanged a long look of moderate disgust. Miroku was notoriously fond of Kasai because she was the only daughter in a brood of sons, and perhaps because she was his spitting image, but in female form.

Kohimu and Tisoki were shouting in the distance, excitedly. Working together they'd pinned the salamander and killed it. They called out to Sango, needing Hiraikotsu to sever the salamander's head. Together the group would take it to the village that the creature had terrorized for so long, to prove satisfactorily that they had gotten rid of the monster.

Sango broke away from the others, hefting Hiraikotsu high on her shoulders, and hurrying to meet her sons. Inuyasha turned to watch her go, warily. The salamander could potentially spring to life and attack them.

Koinu watched his father's broad red-clothed backsides, a sad expression growing there like weeds choking out bright, beautiful flowers. Though Inuyasha hadn't told him as much, Koinu knew he'd let his father down. He was too _human_; though he resembled his father closely in appearance, Koinu was very much Kagome's son. Akisame displayed more of the inuyoukai's classic traits, though she barely looked like Inuyasha at all.

_I failed him…_

Koinu lowered his eyes to the ground and stared at his toes fixatedly. His eyes were a little too moist.

To one side, sheltered beneath Miroku's arm, Kasai was staring at Koinu with her intelligent violet eyes, taking everything in.

* * *

The village was tiny, named Hitohage after the salamander that had terrorized its citizens for so long. The elder greeted Miroku and Sango happily, clapping his hands joyfully when he saw Kohimu and Tisoki hauling the salamander's head. The journey back to their respective homes would take some time so the elders of Hitohage offered the slayers free lodging for their services. Two rooms were offered, one for the adults, the other across the small, shabby courtyard for the children.

Inuyasha grumbled about the arrangements and eventually left Miroku and Sango the room to themselves. He would've claimed that it was to watch over Kohimu and Tisoki—to make sure they didn't wander off and get into trouble like their father would've at a similar age—but in reality it was because he didn't want to stay in the same room with the married couple.

A meal was served, though it was poor, with no meat in it and only stringy vegetables and a few scant noodles in a broth. The tea was surprisingly rich however, probably made fresh from the village's own personal crop.

As luck had it, Tisoki's maid was an older woman, old enough to almost be his grandmother. As a result, Tisoki spent most of his time throwing Inuyasha worried glances and trying to hit on the maid that was serving his older brother.

"My lady, please, may I be so lucky as to learn your name?"

Kohimu drained a small glass of sake, tipping the cup in such a way as to watch his brother's antics over the rim. The maid that had served him was still holding the pot filled with sake. She smiled shyly, covering her mouth with her free hand. She kept walking toward the door, however, apparently planning to ignore Tisoki's pleading.

"My lady! Please, it would grant me great pleasure to call on you!"

The eldest of the women serving them scowled, her face wrinkling like an old leather skin. She muttered under her breath and pushed the younger woman out the door when she tried to hesitate, perhaps about to answer Tisoki.

Tisoki's face fell when they left, closing the door behind them. He stared at the table dejectedly, watching the sake cup unblinkingly. There was no age limit on alcohol consumption in their time, even the young teens Kasai and Koinu could drink sake if they chose.

"It's like I've always told you." Kohimu announced smugly, "You're just too ugly, Tisoki." Kohimu and Tisoki both shared the warm, earthy brown eyes that they'd inherited from Sango, but Kohimu's hair was black while Tisoki's was brown. Their features were a mix between Miroku and Sango, one had the monk's jaw line, the other had more of Sango's nose. Kohimu was widely regarded as a handsome heartthrob in their village while Tisoki, still lanky and poorly proportioned, was not quite as fine an example of masculine beauty.

At his brother's criticism, Tisoki frowned and shot his brother a quick, challenging glare. "That's not what counts in the end with the ladies, idiot. It isn't about how this head looks."

Kohimu smirked all over again. "You don't have it there either."

Now at last Inuyasha reacted, raising his eyes from his food and frowning disgustedly. He wiped his mouth with one long red sleeve and glared sternly between the two teens. "Hey—none of that!"

"Thank you." Kasai groaned, rolling her eyes at her food. She was seated at Koinu's side, as she always was, but on this night she was beside Inuyasha while Koinu stayed at the far end, unusually aloof from the others. Kasai snuck quick glances at him for a time, biting her lip as her brothers began arguing with Inuyasha.

"Why aren't you eating, Koinu?" she asked him, quietly. There was genuine concern in her violet eyes.

Koinu had been staring off unfocusedly into the distance, in the general direction of his father, but when Kasai spoke to him he shook his head as if startled and blinked at her. His cheeks tinged instantly pink as he took her in. She was out of her armor, wearing a light gold kimono with a childish design of simple shapes and lines in white and purple. Her hair was long and black. She hadn't learned to tame it yet and it stood out a little wild from the battle with the salamander earlier.

Her lips interested Koinu, heart-shaped and full, like a rosebud about to open in bloom.

Embarrassedly, Koinu pushed his plate away. "I'm not hungry." He looked directly to Inuyasha, "Father, may I be excused?"

The hanyou was still arguing with Kohimu and Tisoki, but his son's voice drew him swiftly away. One ear turned toward Koinu while he was actually speaking to Kohimu, "…I don't care what your father says…" he cut himself off and faced Koinu, his golden eyes scrutinizing his son cursorily. "You should eat. What are you going to do anyway?"

Koinu's ears turned backward but he righted them quickly. "I'm not hungry, Father. I wanted to get some fresh air and a bath perhaps."

Inuyasha grunted, grabbing the bowl in front of him and slurping up more of the broth noisily before he responded. "I guess—_a bath?_" he shook his head, "Didn't you have one yesterday?"

"No, Father. That was two days ago." Koinu's face was flushing brightly red now. Kohimu and Tisoki had ceased their incessant bickering to be able to overhear Koinu's latest blunder with his father. The tension between father and son hadn't gone unnoticed during their trip.

"Fine." Inuyasha waved a hand dismissively. As Koinu started to rise, Inuyasha made a sound and put the bowl of food—out of which he'd begun to drink sloppily from yet again—down and gestured toward Koinu. "Here, take Tetsusaiga and practice." He lifted the sword from where he'd tucked it at his side beneath the table and lifted it for Koinu.

For a moment the pup paused, uncertain, then, with his jaw tightening, he nodded and took the sword, slipping out of the room and into the courtyard. In his absence the bickering began again until Kasai, who was left out of the argument, excused herself. Inuyasha let her go easily, telling her only to take a sword and to come back soon. He didn't question where she was going at all.

Kasai walked around the courtyard, squinting in the sun. As a child she'd inherited a few small, brown freckles on her cheeks. As she aged they were diminishing, but the color left her always appearing to glow healthily. Though she didn't know it, Kasai's freckles were a history left over by her long lost uncle, Kohaku. In one hand she held a blade called _Burikko_. Nearly a decade ago it had been given to her parents as a gift by Lady Rin—Sesshomaru's mate. In the years since Kasai's run-ins with Rin and Sesshomaru amounted to squat, but the blade had stayed with her for years.

A few village women spotted her and stared, almost rudely. Kasai was a beautiful girl, but her mannerisms and the sword made her completely foreign to them, and very intimidating. The village women went their way, Kasai walked on her elongated skinny legs—she hadn't grown into her height quite yet—searching for Koinu.

The ground shook beneath her bare sandaled feet, faintly. Kasai stopped, pausing as she concentrated on the feeling of the ground moving. Earthquake? Youkai? Or was it Koinu, wielding the Tetsusaiga? From the trees in the distance, echoing from them, Kasai heard a boy shouting in frustration, cursing.

She smiled, grinning widely. Yes, she had her answer: _Koinu._

When she found him the boy was panting and wiping the sweat from his brow. He held Tetsusaiga leveled on the ground. The fang was transformed, but it seemed to shake while Koinu held it, as if reluctant to submit to the boy's control. It longed for its usual master, not for the boy's inexperienced hands.

"Hi." Kasai announced herself, though she suspected that Koinu could have heard her ages ago as she approached from the inn and the village. In an uneven swathe ahead of him lied a path of destruction, ripped up dirt, roots sticking out of the ground, puddles torn apart, trees uprooted in the distance. But the power of the sword weighed on Koinu heavily. His shoulders were hunched and they heaved as he breathed.

"What are you doing here?" he growled, sounding much like Inuyasha in that moment. He might've been his father in that instant if not for the different color of his hakama and haori. Koinu's were a light brown with a checkered design. Except for his clothing, he was Inuyasha's spitting image, only his blue eyes and his height differed.

"I was bored." She shrugged, moving closer and shifting Burikko out so that he could see it more clearly. When they'd been younger the couple had sparred with Burikko as a way of training. Kasai would face Koinu without unsheathing Burikko and Koinu would face her with a staff or with his own claws. "Wanna play?"

Koinu frowned, ears flattening. Tetsusaiga smoldered, abruptly changing, shrinking in Koinu's hands. The boy lifted the dull blade and sheathed it with a look of disgust. "I can't control it, Kasai."

"You're just a kid." She told him, speaking frankly but in a comforting tone.

His response surprised her. Koinu snarled at her, growling with almost alarming viciousness. "I am _not_ just a _kid!"_

"Okay, fine." Kasai lifted her hands, still holding Burikko in one, defensively.

Koinu deflated as fast as he'd become enraged and turned his back on her, sighing heavily. He lifted Tetsusaiga in its sheath, gazing at it, concentrating. What he didn't know was that Kasai was also concentrating fiercely on something, but it wasn't Tetsusaiga.

Her free hand, not holding Burikko, flicked reflexively at her side. Unable to stop herself, she strode forward, reaching…

Koinu turned an ear at the last second and twisted around, snatching Kasai's hand in mid motion before it could latch onto him. Tetsusaiga dropped to the ground, clatteringly. Burikko followed it.

"Koinu, let go…"

"What were you doing?" Koinu asked her, suspiciously, narrowing his young blue eyes. He had not yet released her hand from his grasp.

Her nostrils flared, she blinked rapidly several times. Her face flushed. "I was…" she swallowed thickly, her violet eyes flicked over his face, taking in his features, so well known to her from their long shared childhood. "I don't know…"

"You don't know?" Koinu repeated, confusedly.

Kasai darted forward before his lips had stopped moving, touching the corner of his mouth with her nose, then her lips. Koinu jerked away and blinked at her, shocked. His face was young, the baby fat hadn't completely fallen away, his skin was unflawed, and there were no pimples, not even a speck of body hair— though Inuyasha was much the same way. Her behavior baffled him horribly, and yet Kasai didn't see horror or revulsion in his face.

"What…" Koinu was still searching her face helplessly. His ears were quivering as if he was cold.

Kasai ignored his words and moved in again, more aggressively this time. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his clumsily. Koinu stumbled a little and let go of her, as if about to flee—but he never got the chance before a loud, angry male voice cut through their adolescent fumbling.

"_Koinu! Kasai!"_

The youngsters separated at once, startled and blushing. Miroku was approaching them, his face uncharacteristically tight. As he drew closer, Koinu and Kasai identified real anger in the monk's usually calm, passive features and body language. He closed his eyes when he reached them and crossed his arms over his chest. "What, may I ask, is going on out here? Koinu—where's your father?"

"He sent me out here to practice with Tetsusaiga." The boy stammered, though he eyes were lowered shamefully.

Miroku was unimpressed. "And yet you have left your father's finest possession on the ground." He observed aloud, without mirth or sarcasm. He turned his attention to Kasai then and said only, "Daughter, come with me."

He turned his back on them and began to walk away. Kasai followed after obediently, without looking back.

* * *

Miroku left Kasai under Sango's care. By the look on her husband's face, Sango understood that something had happened to truly disturb her husband. She kept Kasai with her and occupied, though it was hard. Kasai acted as if she had committed some horrible wrong, she avoided meeting her mother's gaze, she said as little as possible.

Miroku crossed the courtyard and entered the room where his sons were staying with Inuyasha. The boys looked up with eager, open faces, expecting the suite of servant women to enter and a new host of flirting and bickering to begin as a result. Instead they found their father staring back at them and wearing an un-amused, unhappy glower on his face.

"Father." Tisoki spoke for the brothers, but both of them ducked in a bow, instantly trying to appease their father. If Miroku was in a bad mood then whatever was wrong, whatever trouble they'd caused, it must be bad.

Inuyasha chuckled roughly. "What happened to you, Miroku? Did Sango throw you out?"

This comment brought a frown from both brothers, immediately uncomfortable at the thought of their parents' intimacy. (A/N: As my former roommate once said, parents and sex can NOT be in the same sentence with each other. It's not a possibility.)

Miroku ignored the hanyou's comment. "Inuyasha. I must speak with you."

"Speak." Inuyasha ordered him, scowling.

"Privately." Miroku added, sighing exasperatedly.

Inuyasha made a sound of surprise in the back of his throat and then rose to his feet, following Miroku out into the courtyard. He slid the door shut behind him, throwing the brothers inside a last glance as he did so.

In the courtyard there was a small stone bench beneath a twisted pine tree. Miroku sat there, smoothing his robes and patiently waiting as Inuyasha joined him. In the distance both fathers spotted Koinu slinking back into the courtyard, carrying a sheathed Tetsusaiga in one hand and Burikko in the other.

Inuyasha stood beside Miroku and frowned as he saw his son. "Isn't that Kasai's sword?"

Miroku ignored him. "Inuyasha—there is a problem with Koinu."

The hanyou stiffened, twisting around to look at Miroku sternly. "What?" his face rippled with confusion.

"I have just come from stumbling on your son and Kasai…" Miroku stared straight ahead, pausing as he searched himself for a good word.

Inuyasha wasn't that patient. "Stumbling what?" he demanded, irritably. "Koinu's too short to hold Tetsusaiga, I know that. He tripped you?"

Miroku glanced heavenward, as if praying. He'd forgotten how dense Inuyasha was over the years. Things passed right beneath the hanyou's nose sometimes. Miroku had always thought on some level that Inuyasha chose to ignore romance or flirting, it just wasn't something he was interested in. Yet there was also a part of him that wondered if Inuyasha's youkai half made him unable to actually _see_ unobvious—as in unspoken—romance.

"I discovered Koinu and Kasai kissing one another." He remarked as simply as he could.

Inuyasha blinked stupidly for a moment and then turned, looking over the courtyard, searching for Koinu. Koinu had vanished, probably rejoining Kohimu and Tisoki. At last he turned back to Miroku and frowned almost angrily. "Koinu is too young, Miroku…"

"I'm afraid you are mistaken, Inuyasha."

"The hell I am! If that's what you saw monk, it was something _your daughter_ was doing, not Koinu." He crossed his arms over his chest, huffing disgustedly. "Your family is full of perverts anyway and you know it."

"Nevertheless," Miroku continued, sticking to his argument, "I saw them together, Inuyasha. We must take action."

"Action?" Inuyasha echoed, scowling. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Miroku gazed at him seriously and spoke slowly, as if educating a child. "Whoever is at fault, Inuyasha, we must watch over them carefully. They are too young—we must keep them separated."

Inuyasha shook his head, closing his eyes tightly and flattening his ears. "Miroku, you're insane!" he gestured wildly, "And you're a pervert too, are you sure you didn't _imagine_…what you said you saw…?" he stammered awkwardly, his cheeks coloring.

The monk's face twisted up with irritation, he was insulted by Inuyasha's none-too subtle insinuation that he didn't know what he was talking about. "I know what I saw, Inuyasha. You must understand—she is my only daughter." He paused, pursing his lips as he found a way to put it into perspective for the hanyou, "Imagine if this were Akisame and Tisoki…"

The hanyou growled immediately. "What the _fuck_ Miroku? Aki don't enter into this!" he made a face, as if about to vomit at the very idea.

Akisame was Inuyasha's youngest child, his only daughter. Unlike Koinu she resembled Kagome more closely, except for her eyes which were Inuyasha's through and through. She also had a tendency to actually act more like their father than Koinu did. Currently she was probably at home, brooding because Inuyasha had left her home with Kagome. The real reason was, of course, because Akisame was only eleven and unable to transform Tetsusaiga. Her training wasn't complete enough, and Inuyasha wasn't willing to risk her hurting herself for a few more years.

"You understand then how I feel." Miroku explained, sighing heavily. The anger was beginning to leave him, replaced with melancholy. Kasai was his only daughter, his spitting image. He didn't want to consider that Koinu _wasn't_ at fault for what he'd seen. What if Kasai, a _girl_ had inherited his family curse of perversion? A girl that craved sex would only end up pregnant with a bastard child, disgracing herself and the family.

Miroku rubbed the once-cursed hand over his face, closing his eyes and hiding his upset—or so he hoped anyway—from Inuyasha. The hanyou, however, had a very acute sense of smell and caught scent of his distress easily.

"Oh come off it Miroku…" his ears drooped pathetically and he began to pace along the shadow of the tree they were deliberating under. "If you really feel it's necessary, we can start training them separately, no big deal. But Koinu thinks of your kids as _family._"

"It would not be a permanent arrangement." Miroku sighed, defeated. "Just for a few years, to let them grow out of it."

"Fine, that's that then." Inuyasha grunted, turning his back on Miroku to stare at the inn, at the sliding doors that lead into the room where Kohimu, Tisoki, and probably Koinu were waiting. "I'll take Koinu home then."

Behind him Miroku's face flashed a quick expression of alarm. "Now? Inuyasha, I didn't mean—"

"Yes now, monk." He growled. "This is how you wanted it, remember?" Stiffly he stalked off, a silent snarl covering his face. Miroku watched him go, too stunned to shout out and stop his long-time friend from storming off.

Moments later Inuyasha stepped back into the room where he'd left Kohimu and Tisoki. Their voices were raised in an argument, which was no surprise to the hanyou. The only difference now was that Koinu had joined them, sitting at the far end silently, his eyes lowered to the matting unseeingly. A sword sat on either side of the youngster, Tetsuaiga on one side, Burikko on the other.

"Koinu." Inuyasha barked his son's name.

The boy looked up, his blue eyes wide and alert. "Father?" he half-choked on the word.

Kohimu and Tisoki quieted their argument, catching the change inside the room, the underlying conflict that had nothing to do with their own bickering.

"Come with me, we're leaving. Give me Tetsusaiga."

Koinu got to his feet, but midway up he tripped over his hakama and stumbled, almost sprawling over the tatami matting. Kohimu and Tisoki covered their mouths, laughing behind them. Koinu regained his balance but kept his eyes downcast, his face was bright red, as red as his father's haori. He lifted Tetsusaiga wordlessly.

Inuyasha took the sword gently, his eyes softening but his lips and jaw clenched tightly. "Kohimu, Tisoki." He addressed the snickering teenagers, making them come to attention though their chests and shoulders were still heaving from their laughter. "You'll make sure that Kasai gets Burikko, won't you?"

They both nodded but it was Tisoki that answered. "Yep, of course Uncle Inuyasha."

Inuyasha nodded, "Tell your mom I said goodbye—and excellent job today boys."

Kohimu took this praise, beaming. "Yes, we will. Thank you."

The hanyou left the room, with Koinu following dejectedly behind him, wanting frantically to speak but deciding against it. He nearly ran into Inuyasha's backsides when his father stopped abruptly. When Koinu looked up, startled, he saw that Miroku was standing before them. Horrified, the boy looked back down to the earth again. The grass was lush here, comforting and cool on his feet. He wished he could roll in it to relieve the heat on his face.

"Inuyasha." Miroku greeted him, stammering, "I didn't mean—"

"I'll see you later, Miroku." Inuyasha half-growled at the monk, then pushed roughly past him. Koinu followed fast on his father's heels, his ears flattened against his skull.

Father and son started on the road, leaving the inn and the village of Hitohage fast behind them. After a few minutes of silence, Inuyasha at last heaved a long, thick sigh that ended in a bitter growl. Koinu watched his father's backsides concernedly, waiting patiently for him to speak if he would.

"That damned monk." Was the answer he finally got, and a few other mumbled curses. At last he halfway peered over his shoulder and called to Koinu, "Don't ever let Miroku accuse you of anything—he doesn't have any idea what the hell he's talking about. Got that, Koinu?"

Koinu frowned, glad that his father couldn't see his face, because if he could he would know that Koinu most certainly didn't understand. Yet nonetheless his son replied at once with, "Yes, Father."

More than two years would pass before Koinu saw Kasai again, and nothing would be the same.

* * *

A/N: And that was the whole long prologue of my new continuation of the _Hanyou_ universe. I hope my normal readers enjoyed that, even though it wasn't _I Miss You_ or _Runaway_. Maybe this thing will even let me add a preview since I have more chaps written up for it...

_"No fucking way!" he snarled, ears turning backward. "She is **not fucking old enough!"**_

_Kagome blinked, startled at Inuyasha's outburst. "Inuyasha…she's older than I was."_

_"No! She's like** fucking** nine!" he shook his head frantically, as if he could turn back time by denying the facts, if only he could find enough passion to do it with._

That's all for now folks!


	2. Two Fathers

A/N: And onto the first real chapter I go…I KNOW I said I wouldn't do this, but I've been writing little lately, and this was already written, and I wanted to update.I haven't written anything on this story, not on _Runaway,_ and not on _I Miss You _either It's a dryspell since my battle with my boyfriend which has been resolved but apparently my creativity is still reeling from it. Class work doesn't help either... With any luck my writer's block will be broken in a matter of days. Wish me luck! In the meantime this is sorta meant to appease you, tho it's not _Runaway._

A thought: Inuyasha and Miroku's (or is it Sango's in that case?) households are very close emotionally, physically they are some distance apart. A day or two of travel by foot. Although the families tend to train their children together and often visit with each other, months can go by, even years, between their visits. A gap of two years would be unusual but not impossible if Miroku and Inuyasha deliberately kept Koinu and Kasai from interacting. Her brothers might've trained with Koinu in the two year gap, but she would be kept away from that.

Disclaimer: Nope, I only own the kids

Last Chapter: Two years ago, on one of their first real outings acting as demon slayers, Kohimu and Tisoki (Miroku and Sango's oldest children) killed a salamander successfully. Kasai (their only daughter) got distracted by groping Koinu (Inuyasha and Kagome's son). Koinu has trouble handling Tetsusaiga, and feels like he's too _human_ to please his father. Later, Miroku caught Kasai kissing a very astonished Koinu and asked Inuyasha to keep the two separated. Inuyasha took offence and left in the same instant with Koinu.

* * *

**Two Fathers**

There were many days when Miroku wished, out of embarrassment, that the hole in his hand had indeed sucked him into the nothingness. Age, and especially the births of his children, had cut his wandering hand short, for the most part. Yet the perversion within his family hadn't stopped—it continued on relentlessly in his children. There were many things that made him beam and spill over with pride, but today he would remember mostly the embarrassment.

It began simply enough. A messenger arrived searching for Sango and Miroku, seeking their expertise as demon exterminators. The clients were rich samurai lords with a recurring problem involving a mysterious nightly visitor to their palace. This apparition—for no one ever witnessed a physical creature involved with the trouble—left muddy footprints about the palace floors. With a massive wedding ceremony and banquet planned within the month, the family was understandably eager to be rid of their messy night guest.

When a payment was set for their services, Miroku set off for the palace, bringing along his daughter Kasai and second-born son Tisoki. Kasai and Tisoki had been gifted with his spiritual powers while the other children lacked the ability. In some ways, Miroku was thankful that it was limited mostly to Kasai and Tisoki because the strength of the trait was inexplicably linked with their perversion.

Lord Tanjintsu, a portly, balding man with a thin, starkly black beard, greeted them warmly in his large, grandiose audience hall. "The wedding is only days away, the bride's family is on the road even now, as we speak. I must have this apparition apprehended and you come highly recommended."

Miroku bowed, smiling coolly. "As a teenager some years ago, my wife was considered the best. She has apprenticed our children to her since before they were weaned. I have also imparted my knowledge as a monk."

Sitting just behind Miroku and to the left, Tisoki's breath was hitching, as if he were trying not to cough. Miroku's jaw tightened as he worked to ignore his son's reaction. He was sure, because it would've been how he thought when he was the boy's age, that Tisoki was hearing _weaned_ in his father's words and immediately thinking of breasts of course. Never mind that the breasts in question were his _mother's,_ he could follow that tangent away quickly and think about any random village girl instead. The difference between Miroku and his son was that Miroku had learned to _hide_ his reactions a little better because he was beaten as a youth when he revealed himself in such a way. Tisoki had learned only the basics from his father, and received far less beatings.

He could add one more to that count as soon as they were alone. Tisoki's sniggering could lose them a job, or worse.

Fortunately Tanjintsu was more interested in Kasai on Miroku's left. His eyes flicked to her continually, his expression was wary, as if Kasai might be the apparition that was muddying his floors, not one of the exterminators to fix the problem. At last the lord pointed his decorative fan, a bright, shining gold thing, at Kasai and grunted. "You bring your…daughter with you on this journey, monk?"

None of them were dressed as demon slayers currently. Kasai wore a simple blue and green kimono in the samurai's court. Her ankles were dirtied from their journey to the palace, as was her face. In spite of her great beauty, Kasai always managed to get dirty, more like a boy than a girl. She was as fierce as her mother, but Tanjintsu would be able to see that she was Miroku's daughter without any doubt because she was his mirror image, but in a younger, feminine form.

Having a beautiful, now sixteen year old daughter had been one of the largest influences on changing Miroku's perversions. Now, as hypocritical as it was, he could punish Tisoki and deal with Sango's teasing remarks with a stone face because the thought that some hentai would come along and touch or abuse _his_ daughter…

To Tanjintsu's question, Miroku nodded. "Yes, this is my only daughter, Kasai."

Tanjintsu nodded, smiling with open admiration and perhaps lust. "A shame, monk. She is too beautiful to be the only one."

Miroku and Tisoki shifted uneasily, both uncomfortable with the samurai's inappropriate attention. Kasai, meanwhile, failed to lower her eyes from him, and refused to blush. She stayed like stone, her nose pointed in the air, her face impassive.

Amazingly, Tanjintsu wasn't finished yet. He sat back and touched his beard with his golden fan, grunting thickly again. "Why, monk, would you bring this gem with you?"

Miroku bowed tensely. "Kasai is as gifted as my wife, Lord Tanjintsu. She also possesses my spiritual powers, which is why I have brought her to aide you in this extermination. My lord, perhaps we could discuss the details of this case, I have a few questions to—"

Tanjintsu waved his fan at Miroku irritably. "I wouldn't know anything about it, the maids deal with the mess before I'm awake. You'll speak to them and I expect it dealt with in two night's time." He had not removed his eyes from Kasai yet, and when he spoke it was to her directly now. "Girl—_Kasai—_I wish to hear you speak. Tell me; didn't your mother ever teach you it is proper to avert you eyes from a powerful man?"

"Mother taught me that, yes. When I see a powerful man, I'll avert my eyes." Kasai answered, dully.

Miroku closed his eyes and held his breath. Tisoki made the sounds in his throat again, trying very hard not to laugh.

Tanjintsu was silent for a moment, and Miroku was certain that he would call for the guards and have Kasai punished or arrested or any other number of horrible things for her rudeness, but just as Miroku opened his mouth to plead Kasai's case, Tanjintsu burst into laughter. As Miroku dared to stare into the samurai lord's face again, he saw the fat little man's belly rippling, even through the rich fabric of his robes. "You are well named, Kasai. An excellent, clever response." (A/N: _Kasai, _as I recall, means _fire._)

He dismissed the slayers while still grinning, but Miroku felt his skin crawl when he saw it. The samurai lord's eyes had a darkness in them, a gleam of something that unnerved the monk.

Their room was beautiful, even though it was only one of the lesser guest rooms. Well-lit, with bright, golden braziers burning. Maids dressed in identical kimono served the three of them. Tisoki watched them come and leave again hungrily—but not for the food. Miroku kept an eye on his son, throwing him glares every time the young man opened his mouth. Each time Tisoki spoke, however, it was surprisingly well-mannered and perfectly behaved. He asked for more food or water or sake without incident and met his father's hawk-like eyes every so often, smiling smugly.

When they were at last alone, Tisoki took a sip of his glass, emptying it, and then faced Miroku directly. "You look worried, Father."

"I am." Miroku sighed, sitting back and adjusting his sleeves. "You are both exceptionally talented—but so much trouble, and undisciplined."

Tisoki sighed and rolled his brown eyes tiredly. "Oh no, not this again."

"You've been fine tonight." Miroku told him, though his tone was harsh and clearly insinuated that the evening was young, Tisoki had plenty of time to get into trouble still. He turned his violet eyes to Kasai and his shoulders sagged. "Kasai—how could you be so foolish?"

"Foolish?" the girl blinked, looking up. Their eyes were identical, father and daughter. "Father—that samurai pig was…"

"That doesn't matter." Miroku interrupted her, frowning with frustration. "You cannot dare to be so rude, especially to someone that is _employing_ us."

"He started it; I was trying to make him stop looking at me like a piece of meat." She stabbed at her food with the chopsticks and made a face.

"That doesn't matter. You _cannot_ be rude to a lord."

The argument might've gone on, but in that moment all three of them froze, turning inward. It was Tisoki that spoke first, echoing all of their thoughts. "It's here."

"Yes." Miroku agreed, nodding sternly. He looked to his son and asked, "Do you feel anything particular about it?"

Tisoki paused for a moment before frowning and shaking his head. "No, I can feel it, but nothing else." He pursed his lips, trying to concentrate further.

Kasai spoke, hurriedly almost interrupting. "It's a kitsune."

Miroku gazed at his daughter across the table with renewed warmth. There was a reason why Kasai was often his favorite—so far not only had she inherited his appearance, but she had also taken a firm grasp on the spiritual energy flowing inside of her. Her powers might've even surpassed Miroku's own. They certainly overshadowed Tisoki's.

"Yes, I sense that as well. It is entering the palace gardens about now…"

Tisoki rose to his feet, moving toward the corner where their weapons were stored. "What are we waiting for then?"

Miroku claimed his staff and a bundle of sutras that he had prepared before they'd journeyed to the palace. Tisoki tucked a sickle into his belt and looped the chain around him as well. There were also a few daggers that he hid around inside his clothes. Though it was rude Tisoki hadn't shed those daggers for the dinner, it saved him precious time now. Kasai had only one weapon—Burikko, the woman's sword.

The maids had already told the slayers what hallways were left dirtied by their nightly visitor, and, to make sure the slayers were in prime territory for it, they'd placed them in one of the guest rooms in one of the apparition's favored hallways. As the slayers donned their weapons, a few maids slid open the doors and entered, only to stop and gasp as they saw their guests putting on their weapons.

"Ladies—I'm sorry to startle you." Miroku was the first to speak, gesturing apologetically, trying to usher them in. "We are preparing for the extermination. It seems your apparition begins his nights early."

The maids were holding sleeping mats, ready to be spread for their guests. Cautiously they moved deeper into the room, setting up the beds. Then they attended to the plates left by their guests. Tisoki followed after them, asking if he could help. The maids were understandably skittish of a young man in his prime wearing a sickle on his waist. They finished clearing the table and left hurriedly. In their wake Tisoki pouted noticeably.

"You didn't think the weapons would impress them, did you?" Kasai teased him, smirking.

Tisoki glared at her. "Shut up."

Miroku shushed them both. "Douse the lights, calm your breathing. This room must appear dark. This hall is normally abandoned—presumably the apparition favors it because of it."

Kasai moved around the room, putting out the braziers and candles. Tisoki left the screens on the windows open, letting in the cool night air into the stuffy room. Miroku slid open the doors to the room, as it would be while not being used, then the three slayers moved to the corners of the room and knelt. They waited that way, unmoving, for the apparition to come inside.

Time passed. Miroku had taught each of his children the art of meditation, which allowed them now to pass the time silently and without worry. When the kitsune—the apparition as the maids and samurai lords deemed it—entered the palace, all three slayers opened their eyes again, searching out one another in the darkness.

The hall outside was silent. Air moved through the passageways, an occasional wind stirred the slayers' hair from the open windows. The temperature was dropping swiftly, falling away.

And then there came the faintest creaking sound from the hallway. In his corner, Miroku lifted a sutra in one hand and slipped it into the hand that was already grasping his staff, readying it for usage.

A shadow passed by one of the open sliding doors. It was lithe, long, and gray, like a cloud of smoke given form. It paused before the doorway and the leading part of it twisted around, peering it seemed into the guestroom. Twin spots of green light lit up inside the gray of the shadow, searchingly.

Tisoki struck first, throwing a dagger at the beast through the open space of the doorway. The dagger hit its mark with a small thumping sound and the shadow let loose with a high pitched keening. It leapt away, running out of the doorway, still shrieking.

"Stop it!" Miroku shouted, jumping to his feet.

Tisoki rushed for the door, another dagger already in his hand. The creature had left a sick, tar-like muck in a trail that was impossible not to follow—but now mixing with the muck was red-black blood in wet dribbles, sprayed on the fine sliding doors and screened walls, as well as the rich wood floor.

Miroku reached the next doorway, trying to head off the creature. It was still screaming, the noises changing, warping as they listened. The thing had not escaped out of their hallway yet, it hadn't even gone beyond their room completely. Miroku would be able to work with Tisoki to trap it in the hallway and kill it on the spot.

"Head it off!" Tisoki shouted as he reached the hall and darted into it. His feet caught and stuck in the tar-like mess the beast had left behind.

Miroku reached the hallway as well. He found himself staring down a long, straight stretch of it. Some twenty feet away at the first doorway into their guestroom, he saw Tisoki stumbling in the muck. Halfway between them he saw the shadow creature, pulsating before him. Its eyes, the green lights caught within the shadow, were pinned on Miroku, taking him in.

"Kitsune!" Miroku addressed it, shouting. "This is not your place! I will give you this one warning: leave this place now and never return to trouble these people again! If you do not I will be forced to bind you and purify you." As he spoke, Miroku snatched the sutra from where it was clasped in the hand that held his staff and held it out for the beast to see.

"_Monk,"_ The creature hissed, _"You will pay for my wounds…"_

Miroku took that as a negative answer to his attempt to get the creature to leave of its own will. He lifted the sutra and opened his mouth to shout the incantation to bind the creature, but before he could vocalize it, the kitsune slammed its body into the screen walls beside it.

Blood spurted, coloring the golden screens. The black muck followed as well. Some of it coated the walls and the floor, the rest came alive, oozing and rolling and crawling over the floor, grabbing at Miroku's bare feet. Down the hall Tisoki began to shout and scream.

"It's acid!" Miroku's son collapsed, crying out.

"No…" Miroku had a moment to realize that the muck was blocking his path back into the room. The kitsune had forced its way inside, straight through the screened walls. Kasai was inside, guarding the screen-less windows that still stood open to the night, a waiting exit for a desperate kitsune. "Kasai!"

The wraith-like kitsune bounded through the room, rushing for the window, not planning to stop even though Kasai stood firmly in its way, her sword unsheathed and at the ready. The black slime and blood flowed after the creature, trickling and oozing over the floor.

Kasai faced the monster and shouted an attack as it leapt at her. She saw a flash of white teeth, the sickly green glow of its eyes…

Burikko thrust upward, Kasai felt a weight on the blade as it hit home. She twisted, spinning flexibly, using gravity and her heavier weight to swing the kitsune free of her blade and across the room, away from her. It howled, screaming, and fell heavily on one of the unrolled, as yet unused sleeping mats.

Kasai gasped, pawing at the blood and black slime that had dribbled onto her. The substance burned her, stinging fiercely. She gritted her teeth and grasped her sword, crouching to regard her quarry.

The kitsune was slowly rising to its feet again. Its shape had become visible now, no longer indistinct and smoke-like. It was a gray fox the size of a large dog. It shook its head and blood dribbled out of its mouth, frothing. Burikko had pierced a lung. Blood pooled beneath it from where Tisoki's dagger had caught the beast in the side as well.

The black slime hadn't stopped its attack. It burned into Kasai's clothing, scalded her skin where it made contact. She could hear Tisoki screaming for help and her father calling out to both of them in desperation.

Kasai moved forward aggressively, making up her mind. The creature was struggling to breathe, already it was dying. Before it could recover any further, Kasai shouted again and brought Burikko down with as much force as she could muster on the animal's neck. It had no chance to cry out before its head fell to the floor, rolling away. Its body staggered for a moment before falling at last. Blood pumped fiercely, hissing, out of the body and the head for a few moments, then dissipated, fading.

The black slime stopped moving. It had been under the creature's power, and without its master, it now fell away, becoming water, thick, rich droplets of it, like dew in the morning.

Miroku was on his feet in a second and hurrying to help Tisoki. Kasai took a moment longer before going to her brother. Instead she closed the last foot or so between herself and her kill and stared down at it. The beast appeared truly dead but one could never tell with a demon. Kasai raised Burikko high and drove the sword into the kitsune's chest, aiming for its heart. There was a small hiss of air from its chest, but nothing else.

When she looked up she saw Miroku propping Tisoki up on his shoulder. Her brother's face was creased with pain, but both of them gazed at her—and at her kill—with pride.

"It's a fine kill, Daughter." Miroku smiled and handed her the sutra, now dirtied with the black tar and a little of the kitsune blood. "Place this on its body. You know the words to say?"

Uncertainly, Kasai nodded, "I think so…"

"What about the head?" Tisoki asked tightly.

"That we will take to our employers to ensure payment." Miroku nodded, taking a deep breath and stamped his staff on the floor once, making it rattle. "The spell, Kasai…"

She nodded and leaned forward, shouting the incantation as she slapped the sutra onto the kitsune's bloodied, matted gray fur. There was a bright light and all three of the slayers shielded their eyes from it briefly. When it had cleared the body had vanished, though the blood and the black tar had remained.

Kasai cleaned Burikko on the soiled sleeping mat and sheathed the blade once more. When she looked up she saw Miroku smiling at her, beaming silently with pride.

"Well done, both of you." He grinned, using every one of the new lines and wrinkles he'd gathered in the two decades since he'd survived the battle with Naraku, married Sango, and started up his family. He was no longer the perverted teenager he'd once been, he had aged and changed many, many times over. His face showed the wrinkles to prove it, but in that moment he knew pride equivalent to any warrior's victory, or any artist's completed project. One day, though he would die, his children would live on, and they had learned what they knew from him.

It was the closest any mortal could ever come to immortality on earth, and he had reached it.

* * *

In the early, golden light of dawn, a loud, metallic ripping sound resounded through the valley around what had once been known as Kaede's village. In the not too distant future it would be called Tokyo. For now the meadow was nameless and uninhabited, except by the birds that were startled from their roosts in the trees and bushes. They took wing, shrieking their alarm. Other creatures stirred as well, the first gnats and flying bugs, a few frogs and lizards. Even a squirrel darted from one tree to another, its body rippling in a wave-like, undulating motion as it ran.

The source of the racket so early in the morning came of course from a white-haired, dog-eared figure dressed—not in red, but a dark blue haori and hakama. He held the Tetsusaiga, massive and transformed, and pointed it at the distant trees as if aiming it.

Then, instead of using any attacks, he lowered the sword, plunging it forcefully into the ground so that it stayed upright. He let go of the hilt and stepped away, watching dispassionately as the blade shrunk, becoming the unimpressive, dull katana. Over his shoulder he turned and said, "Your turn now."

From behind him a shorter, lithe figure emerged, this one female. She was caught between girlhood and womanhood and hadn't reached her adult height just yet. Her clothes were a lighter, baby blue color. Although she wore a short kimono, barely reaching her knees, more in the style of a child than of a young woman, she wore leggings underneath it. Her eyes were a rich, golden honey color, like amber, and as she stepped forward to grasp the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, her fingertips were clawed.

With an indelicate grunt, the girl pulled the blade out of the ground and lifted it high, aiming it and mimicking the other's stance. The sword didn't transform, it remained dull and thin and utterly useless.

The girl sighed disgustedly and pushed the sword back into the dirt. "Koinu, it isn't working!" she griped, glaring at her brother as if it was somehow his fault that their father's sword refused to transform when she handled it.

Koinu walked patiently back over to his sister and took her hands in his own, guiding them around the hilt again. "When you hold it, don't _think_ about needing it to transform, Aki. Instead think about using it, think about Mom and Father."

Akisame scowled, shaking her head. "This isn't going to work." Her tone was higher because she was female, but otherwise it was identical to one Inuyasha would've used. She might've looked human with her long, straight black hair, but Akisame had more of their father in her sometimes than Koinu could ever dream of having.

Calmly, Koinu moved away from her, crossing his arms and watching his sister critically. Akisame, grumblingly, grabbed Tetsusaiga again and lifted the sword into the air, wobbling a little. The blade flickered, trying to transform, and then, as if rejecting her, slipped from Akisame's fingers, clattering clumsily onto the ground.

"Ugh!" Akisame growled, her hands curling into fists.

"That's okay—you just have to keep trying, Aki." Koinu started to walk forward to help her, but Akisame was finished with the exercise. She growled and pushed him away, reaching for Tetsusaiga herself.

"Take it, I don't want to use it." she snarled.

Koinu shook his head reluctantly as he accepted the blade from her and sheathed it slowly, respectfully. "Father won't like hearing you say that."

"Like I give a…"

"Don't say that." Koinu scolded her at once, ears flattening in warning.

His sister had turned her back on him, beginning to walk back toward the village, but now she glanced back at him, scowling. "You're not Mom; I can say whatever I want."

"And you're _not_ Father. You're not even a boy—you shouldn't talk like that." Koinu tied the Tetsusaiga to the sash around his waist and followed after his sister at a short distance, heading for home.

"Whatever." She growled, irritably. "I just want to go home. I don't feel good."

Koinu's ears pricked, coming to attention. "What's wrong?" unconsciously he started sniffing the air, trying to pick up her scent.

"I don't know!" she snarled. She was walking awkwardly; her hands were clasped over her middle.

With growing concern, Koinu leapt ahead, landing evenly at her side and taking hold of her forearm. "Aki? What's up?"

She frowned, her lips pinching in on themselves. Her arms stayed clasped over her middle. "I already told you, I don't know. I feel like maybe I'm going to be sick."

"Well there's plenty of trees for that—what did you eat?" Koinu tried to laugh, to cut the tension. Akisame was stiff; her face was paler than he'd seen it in some time. She pulled her arm away from him and took off, leaping.

After a pause, Koinu followed after her, the cool morning wind catching his hair and his clothes. Akisame was lighter and somehow faster than him, in spite of the fact that she was clearly feeling ill. Her scent had changed lately, acquiring a more female stink to it, but Koinu hadn't spent much time considering that change.

The siblings scaled the hill that their parents had built their estate on. They avoided the main path by way of tradition, mostly because that was the route their father took. They leapt through the trees, taking great joy in disturbing the birds from their roosts. At least Koinu did, this morning. Akisame had only one goal in mind, and that was getting to her mother.

They entered their parents' estate by leaping the fence bordering it. Koinu hesitated, keeping his balance on top of the gate and then rising to his full height. He squinted, trying to see over the house, searching for their father. Inuyasha was certain to be awake at this point. Like Koinu and Akisame he was an early riser because of his youkai blood.

Below, Akisame was already on the verandah, beyond the small lawn and gardens that Kagome had set up in front of the house. She was dusting her feet off and sliding the door open, hurrying inside.

"Mom?" she called, moving through what amounted to the kitchen, with the fire pit for cooking, through the sitting room with the table where the family gathered at least once a day to share a meal and conversation. She reached her parents' bedroom and paused at the door, listening. The sounds of only one person reached her ears and, breathing a sigh of relief, Akisame slid open the door and passed into the room. "Mom?"

Kagome was waking up at her daughter's voice. She sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes blearily. "Akisame? What is it?"

"I don't feel good, Mom. I'm sick." Akisame walked forward and sat heavily on the bed beside Kagome. She had adopted a pouting look, her golden eyes were dull, her face unanimated, and her hands still resting over her middle.

Kagome drew in one short breath and sighed tiredly. "Is it cramps?"

"Cramps?" Akisame repeated, blankly.

"You're holding yourself." Kagome motioned toward the way her daughter was sitting awkwardly. "Does it hurt?"

Akisame swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, but only a little." She couldn't hide the signs of discomfort though; it was as plain as the paleness in her skin tone, and evident in her hunched, stiffened posture.

Kagome nodded slowly, still partially fighting sleep. Over the years she'd watched Akisame grow and change, and over the last year or so she'd seen the transformation in Akisame's body shape. The development of hips and breasts along with her latest growth spurts. She'd been waiting for a time like this, but she hadn't expected cramps, she'd expected Akisame to come to her panicked about blood in her underpants. Cramps she imagined were an entirely human ailment, but her children always surprised her with their mixed traits.

"Well, there are some painkillers in the medicine closet." Kagome kept an assemblage of medications from her time period in a closet in the hallway. It had come in handy more times than she could count. "You can take some of those to ease the pain for now. We can just hope they get better in the future."

Akisame stared at her mother, utterly baffled, but she didn't question Kagome. Sickness wasn't something she liked in the least. Unlike Koinu, who required a disguise whenever he was sick and was, therefore, more of a hassle when it came to doctor's visits, Akisame was almost human in appearance. Whenever she'd had the slightest hint of illness Kagome could drag her precious daughter into the doctor to be poked and prodded and ogled over. Since becoming older and getting her own say in things, Akisame had grown more stubborn about it, and had started refusing to see the doctor at all. If Kagome thought that the pain she was suffering was nothing, then Akisame wasn't going to fight her on that at all.

Akisame left to get the painkillers as Kagome had instructed. Almost the moment her daughter had left, Inuyasha entered the room, pausing only a moment to look down the hall as he spotted Akisame walking away. He shook his head as he approached Kagome. "I thought I sent her out to practice." He grumbled.

"You did, Inuyasha." Kagome replied, yawningly.

Inuyasha shrugged off his haori, but left on the inner, cream-white robe. With surprising care—it _was_ a family heirloom after all—he folded it, albeit sloppily, and set it at the foot of their futon before sitting beside Kagome. "Why is she back so soon then? Is Koinu here too now?"

"Akisame isn't feeling very well." Kagome sighed, resting her chin in her hand and leaning backward, letting Inuyasha support her weight for a moment as she relaxed.

Inuyasha grunted. "Aki? That girl's made of stone. What's eating her?"

Without thinking, Kagome answered him frankly. "She's probably about to start her period."

If she had known the expression she was missing, Kagome certainly would've turned to look at her husband and longed for a Polaroid, but fortunately for her hanyou she missed it completely. First a blankness of shock overtook him. His mouth fell open slightly, his amber eyes widened. Then a second phase started fast on the heels of the first. A deep scowl covered his face, and then a small growl in his throat.

The growl at last tipped Kagome off. She moved away from him, turning to stare at Inuyasha worriedly. "What is it?"

"No fucking way!" he snarled, ears turning backward. "She is _not fucking old enough!"_

Kagome blinked, startled at Inuyasha's outburst. "Inuyasha…she's older than I was."

"No! She's like _fucking_ nine!" he shook his head frantically, as if he could turn back time by denying the facts, if only he could find enough passion to do it with.

Kagome rubbed her face almost with exhaustion. "She's thirteen, almost fourteen years old. I was twelve when I started mine."

Inuyasha pulled away from her as if she'd bitten him. "What the _hell?"_

Now Kagome was awake and as Inuyasha got up and circled the bed irritably, snatching up his haori and putting it on again, she frowned. "What's wrong with you, Inuyasha?"

Akisame stepped into the room then and stopped in her tracks, realizing that her parents had managed to have an argument in minute or so she'd left. She watched them concernedly, expecting them to start bickering again as usual, but instead her arrival cut the battle short. Her father glared at her as if she'd done something horribly wrong until Akisame felt her cheeks heat up and actually began asking herself if she _had_ done something worthy of this fuss. Unfortunately she came up empty.

"What?" she demanded, scowling much in the same way as Inuyasha might've.

Inuyasha growled, crossing his arms, and stormed past Akisame, leaving the room altogether.

Helplessly, Akisame felt childish tears trying to well up inside her eyes. She sniffed them back fiercely. "Mom? What's going on?"

Kagome sighed with frustration and waved one hand dismissively. "Nothing, your father is just moody, that's all. I've always wondered if hanyou get PMS."

Akisame made a face, confusedly. "Pee-em-ess?"

"Nevermind." Kagome patted the bed at her side, "Come here, sit next to me, I have to talk to you about something. I should've done it sooner…"

* * *

A/N: Because I have the next chapter ready and waiting for my writer's block to DIE…

_Concernedly, Kagome stepped into the room and knelt at her husband's side, reaching out to tweak his ears. He responded by moaning thickly in the back of his throat and leaning against her, nuzzling into her neck more like a child than a lover. Kagome sighed and wrapped her free arm around him as she continued to stroke his ears. "Inuyasha?" she asked softly, "What's wrong?"_

"_Nothing." He murmured, touching his lips to her neck, inhaling deeply. "You smell like fish and fire smoke."_


	3. Perverts and Paranoia

A/N: These chapters keep coming out too long…ugh…I had a question from _Innasasha_ regarding whether Koinu is still clumsy and awkward. I demonstrated that his ability with Tetsusaiga has grown, and this chapter will hopefully reveal more into his family dynamics now. He's about fifteen and I think most fifteen year olds are a little ungraceful still. Hmn, I hope to better answer your question as time goes on…I updated because I am procrastinating and it was just sitting there, ready to be submitted for your potential enjoyment. A last **Notice:** the f-bomb is dropped a lot in this chapter within IY's family. Just be warned. I hope its hilarious rather than offensive.

Disclaimer: Nope, no owning.

* * *

Last chapter: Miroku took Kasai and Tisoki to an extermination where Kasai embarrassed him but then killed the creature they were after and put the spell on it. Koinu was trying to teach Akisame to transform Tetsusaiga, but Aki wasn't getting it, and she wasn't feeling well. She's reached her first menarche! I don't know if I used that term right but anyway…Kagome told this to IY and he freaked out, unable to accept it.

* * *

**Perverts and Paranoia**

There was a boy carrying a massive bag of rice over his shoulders. Kasai walked behind him, her eyes trailing up and down his form appreciatively. He was older than she was, perhaps eighteen, she wondered if he was married, if he would soon _be_ married…

There were no sleeves on his robes; he didn't need them anyway in this warm early autumn weather. Summer had yet to release its grip on the world. Butterflies still crossed the meadows, crops were still being harvested. The sun continued to shine and Kasai could feel that warmth on her cheeks powerfully, warming her inside and out.

Well, maybe the inside part had to do more with this young man's muscular arms and the sharp, triangular shape that his wide shoulders made as they narrowed into his hips. His buttocks were firm and round, and moving underneath the relatively thin fabric of his peasant pants. The muscles of his calves were fascinating as well. Rippling like fish beneath pond water. There was a good amount of hair on his legs too, which both repulsed and captivated her.

"Kasai?" Sango was speaking to her, her tone sharp, almost reprimanding.

"Yes?" Kasai didn't take her eyes off of the young man and the sack of rice slung over his shoulders.

"Hold this." Without any other warning, and no other choice, Sango thrust a bag filled with fabrics onto her daughter, momentarily blocking her view of the hunk in front of her.

"Mom!" she exclaimed, caught off guard and stumbling a little bit. She adjusted the load, trying to see around it and to leave one hand free for a potential grope.

"Can you hold that, Kasai? Or does it block your view too much?" Sango asked her without any amusement.

"Mom! I wasn't—I mean I wouldn't—"

Sango sighed and shook her head. "Don't lie to me." She picked up the pace, trying to pass the young man with his rice. Kasai fell behind a little, still admiring the man's many attributes. Sango slipped ahead of her slightly, but not before she whispered briefly just for her daughter's ears. "Don't you dare touch him."

Yet as Sango moved ahead, leaving Kasai almost side by side with the young man, Kasai found that she couldn't control herself. His shapes were so nice, the muscles rippling just beneath…she raised the hand she'd worked to free from the load that Sango had forced on her and then paused, caught between gripping his arm or one of his butt cheeks…

Her hand shot out like a snake, aiming for the butt cheek closest to her, but the man had noticed her strange movement and turned to look at her. The motion changed the angle of his arms, and as Kasai leaned toward him to cop a feel, she came up short, ramming her cheek into the man's elbow and arm instead.

The man shouted, almost losing his balance. As he regained it he turned his eyes on Kasai angrily, scowling thickly. "What the—what's the matter with you, girl?"

"Uh…" Kasai blushed instantly and laughed, trying to titter as if she had not higher thoughts in her skull at all, no other agendas that involved ogling him like a piece of meat. "I'm such a klutz, sir. Please, can you forgive me?" she tried to bow but the fabric really was cumbersome. She had to stop partway into the bow, realizing that some of the clothing would touch the ground if she finished it.

She glanced further up the path and saw Sango with her arms crossed over her chest, her face set in an ugly, disappointed frown. More heat rushed into Kasai's face. She felt certain she must be transparent to this young man as well.

"Just be more careful this time." The man told her, his face softening as he took her in. Kasai was anything but sore on the eyes, and this man was doing much the same as she had to him from behind. "Wouldn't want to see you get hurt, now would we?"

Kasai waved her free hand absently and smiled until her cheeks hurt. "No, not at all!" inwardly she wanted to vomit. This man looked fine from behind, but upfront he had an under bite and protruding teeth that reminded her more of an animal than a human being. She thought of some kind of crab, shoveling food into his mandibles, or a fish like a barracuda.

"Do you live around here, miss?" the fish-faced man asked, taking interest in her suddenly. Klutzy and brainless would've made a fine match for him, Kasai thought. Unfortunately she was actually neither of those.

"I'm sorry, no I don't, and I have to go, I hear my mother calling me."

In reality Sango was still waiting for her, starting to tap her foot with impatience.

"Can I at least get your name, miss?"

Kasai smiled wide and thoughtlessly again, "Nice talking with you!" she turned her back on him and hurried away to rejoin Sango.

"What did I tell you, Kasai?" Sango asked, sighing.

"Mother, I have no idea what you're talking about! I just wanted to meet him!"

Sango shook her head hopelessly, smiling with the first real trace of amusement. "I never believed it but you're just like your father. Right down to the bad lying."

"Mom!" Kasai exclaimed, "How could you say something like that? I'm your only daughter…"

"Yes, yes, I know." Sango at last smiled genuinely, loosening up. She glanced over at Kasai and reached out to stroke her daughter's hair as they walked together. "And except for being a pervert, you're everything I could've asked for, Kasai."

Kasai frowned, trying to work out whether that was compliment or insult or both. "Thank you…?" but already she was scanning the crowds around her, looking for another fine male specimen to ogle.

The demon slayer's village, rebuilt and resettled by Miroku and Sango nearly two decades ago, was growing more prosperous every year. Not only demon slayers and exterminators settled there, but also merchants and other craftsmen and warriors alike. It was a border town, located in the mountains between the coastal regions like what would one day become Tokyo, and the inner lands like Sesshomaru's Western Lands and the Middle Lands, ruled by other members of the inuyoukai clan.

Strangers, like the boy with the sack of rice, came and went frequently. But Miroku and Sango lived in the village permanently. People within the village tended to group. In the center were the demon slayers, to their left the merchants clumped, to the right the craftsmen set up their shops and marketplaces. A few priests and mikos had joined the village recently. They performed marriages and were beginning to build their own temples.

It had been two years since Kasai had left the village except to train or to go on assignments. It was long enough for her to prove that she was capable of thriving as a slayer, but also long enough for her to prove even to Miroku that she had indeed inherited his genetic perversion. Kasai was watched over by her whole family, even by the perverts. Yet, it went without saying that she bonded more with her younger brothers than she did with Kohimu and Tisoki.

Sango and Kasai reached their home. Unlike Inuyasha and Kagome's, which was located out of the village proper, Miroku and Sango's home was smaller and multiple stories and smashed right alongside another home. Their neighbors were a couple of middle-aged men that had seemingly chosen extermination over family life. Before Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai had grown old enough to aid Sango and Miroku, the couple had often teamed up with their neighbors. Kasai had spent much of her childhood admiring them, but since reaching a certain maturity she'd come to realize that although they were brave and talented demon slayers, these neighbors were very much a gay couple, completely uninterested in her.

Mother and daughter slipped out of their sandals just inside the front door and entered the house, setting down their various groceries. The youngest member of the family ran up to Sango and immediately wrapped his arms around her.

"Mommy!" this was Miroku and Sango's youngest son, their sixth child. He was Koudo, named for the rich brown color of his eyes and his hair, even the spots of freckles on his cheeks. There were times when Koudo reminded Sango painfully of her lost brother, but when sadness threatened, Sango could always focus on the boy's face, for his jaw line resembled Miroku's strongly, and the boy also had the shape of his father's lips as well. He resembled Kohaku, but there were differences. As she reached down to tousle her youngest son's hair, she wished for probably the millionth time that Kohaku could've survived to have seen his many nephews. After the battle with Naraku they'd searched for Kohaku but never found any trace of him…

Koudo was almost seven years old already, growing like a weed, like all of her children.

As Sango scooped Koudo up into her arms, and considering how large the boy had gotten it was a difficult task, Kasai passed through the house to set the bundle of fabrics down somewhere safe for the time being. She was in the process of being taught needlework and other sewing practices for someday in the not too distant future when she'd be caring for a family of her own. Kasai preferred her sword to the needlework anyway. She stuck herself over and over again with the needles, perilously sharp and carved usually by Kohimu from the bones of various youkai.

Riki, the second to last child born within their household at about ten years old, rounded a corner and called her name. Kasai glanced up and smiled warmly at her little brother. "What is it?"

"Father wants to see you and Mom." Riki frowned then and asked, "When will you take me out and teach me how to fight with the poles?" Riki had a good arm and had an interest in adopting a spear as his main fighting tool. The proper person to teach him that was Miroku, considering the fact that he'd been using a staff for years, but Miroku was often busy or away traveling. A surer, and perhaps less intense bet, was asking Kasai.

"Soon, I promise." Kasai slipped past him and into the small, narrow hallway leading to the room that her parents used as a study and meeting room for potential clients. The door was open so she slipped inside and sat, waiting.

Miroku was writing in ink, more sutra scrolls. That probably meant he was about to announce more traveling, another extermination to be done. He spoke to her without looking up. "Kasai."

"Yes, Father?" she addressed him formally and sat at attention.

"I've had a number of messages sent to me from the coast…"

"From Aunt Kagome?" Kasai asked, unable to keep herself from interrupting. She'd missed her "Aunt" and the strange, miraculous food she could supply on demand in its strange, astonishing crinkling wrappings called "pla-stick."

Miroku glanced up at her eagerness and his lips thinned, expressing some negative emotion. Kasai frowned briefly and lowered her eyes. It wasn't the fact that she'd interrupted him; it was that she was excited about news from the coast. Miroku had revealed his conversation years ago to Sango, and from Sango the word had traveled to Kasai of course. Miroku didn't know his daughter understood his wariness, but she did, very acutely, and she hadn't ever forgotten that moment of first embarrassment. The moment with Koinu, the puppy-boy…

"Yes, some of them are from Kagome, yes. Others are from village leaders, samurai lords, our usual clients. There have been some unusual youkai recently." Here Miroku paused, his violet eyes flicking to Sango as she entered and slid the door shut behind her. "The youkai," he continued as Sango settled beside Kasai comfortably, "Is said to entrance men."

Sango and Kasai spoke at once, surprised. "Men?"

Miroku nodded. "Young men are lured by a beautiful woman if they cross within sight distance of the sea. Apparently she has an enchanting song that she uses that drives them into the sea. The men that succumb are never heard from again. Presumably they're all dead."

"How many?" Sango asked, solemnly.

"Too many to count, but the attacks have been going on for some time and not all the missing are accounted for having been lost in this way. Also the sightings are entirely seasonal. This youkai is migrating." Miroku sat back and locked his gaze with Sango, "Can you guess what it is, love?"

"It must live in the sea." Sango murmured at once, putting things together aloud. "And it sings…?"

"Ah," Miroku nodded as if to himself, having some sort of realization. "I forgot, you have never probably heard of it before."

"Heard of what, Miroku?" Sango asked, at last growing tired of the waiting game.

"Whales, my Sango. Unlike fish, whales sing, or so a fisherman's daughter once told me." When he added this last part of explanation Sango frowned, unimpressed. Miroku lifted his hands in a defensive motion, "Kagome has also written to me about it! She's felt the need to educate me about them as well. Apparently they aren't fish in her time."

"That's the oddest thing I've heard today." Sango shook her head, perplexedly. "Usually Kagome is well-educated, but sometimes the things she says just don't make sense. Of course whales are fish, they live in the sea. What else would they be?"

Miroku grinned, "Youkai, of course. My guess on the stories I'm hearing is that this is a youkai that at least travels with these whales, or some other singing sea creature and lures men from the shore to eat."

Kasai made a face. "Yuck."

Sango threw her daughter a quick, mocking look. "Yes, indeed."

"What!" Kasai objected, helplessly. "What are you implying, Mother?"

Her mother ignored her and instead plunged into the discussion about the extermination instead. "How do you plan to deal with this beast, Husband?"

Miroku stifled a yawn but tried to speak at the same time, making the words rather garbled. "I'll send you and Kasai."

"Alone?" both Sango and Kasai choked at once. It was unusual for slayers to travel in a group less than four. There was strength in numbers, a lot of it. And although it was easy to see what Miroku was thinking—send women slayers because men would be vulnerable—there were other problems with it. If the youkai really was a _whale_ youkai it would be massive, perhaps bigger than anything they'd fought before, and it would be in the sea…

"What would you do, lovely Sango?" the monk asked, evenly. He wasn't challenging her, but instead was genuinely interested and fishing for ideas.

"Well, you must send a few others with us at least. Once we were there we would have to research the stories around the attacks to assess the threat. Then we could perhaps prevent the men among us from hearing the song." She shrugged, as if the solution seemed easy enough to her.

Miroku considered it for a moment, then frowned. "It makes me nervous. What if she looks perfectly human and she could fool them into unplugging their ears?" he smirked for a moment, "You must remember; we're speaking of our sons, Sango."

"How would it affect a hanyou?" Sango asked abruptly, cocking her head slightly and watching Miroku with narrowed eyes suddenly. She knew that Inuyasha and Miroku hadn't really spoken much in the intervening two years since their petty fight over Koinu and Kasai.

Miroku scowled. "Probably the same way it affects any man—and Inuyasha would be even more difficult because he has such good hearing. You could never gum up his ears enough!"

Kasai opened her mouth, about to ask about Koinu, but then just as quickly as the thought popped into her mind, she quieted herself, closing her mouth again. Her parents continued to bicker with one another, lightly.

"I'm not so sure about that." Sango replied to her husband, smirking. "The Inuyasha I remember had very selective hearing at times."

"He always heard Kagome when she said _Sit."_ Miroku coughed, trying to cover his laughter.

Kasai blinked, unfamiliar with this story. "Sit? Don't you mean _shi—"_

Sango slapped Kasai's arm, making the girl flinch away and hold her arm as if the blow had actually caused her more substantial damage aside from the dent in her ego. "Mom!"

"Ladies don't speak in such a manner." Sango told her absently, already halfway facing Miroku again. She was on parenting autopilot, by now a very longstanding habit. "Miroku, I think we should go to visit Inuyasha and Kagome. They live so close to the coast after all. We could do the research we need there and stay with them."

"They hardly have any room." Miroku objected, fighting a frown. "I wouldn't want to burden them." As if she could forget such a fact, Miroku leaned forward and reminded his wife: "We have _six children._"

Sango's expression soured, unimpressed. "I know Husband—I remember giving birth to all of them." She grumbled.

"And you have done a fabulous job, lovely Sango, my love." Miroku immediately turned on the kiss-up charm, smiling warmly at his wife and even bowing slightly to her. "And still so beautiful and charming! Have I told you how much I love you today?"

Kasai made a small gagging noise and rolled her eyes but stopped, freezing when Sango threw her a glare.

Miroku's smile faded abruptly and he sighed, his mouth formed a large O shape as the air escaped his chest, making him deflate like a party balloon. "I suppose it is a wise decision, Sango. Perhaps Akisame is old enough now that Inuyasha and Kagome would feel comfortable letting her join us."

At last Kasai asked, "What about Koinu?"

Miroku stiffened but answered her swiftly when he realized that Sango was watching him knowingly. He cleared his throat and nodded dismissively. "Yes, of course, Koinu too. But remember this creature attacks _men._ He would be vulnerable, as would I or any of your brothers."

"Koinu and Inuyasha aren't men though." Kasai protested, remaining hopeful.

"Still, it's too dangerous to find out. Wouldn't you agree, Sango?"

Sango sighed and slowly nodded, giving Kasai a regretful glance. "Yes, I'm afraid that a spell like the one your father is describing wouldn't care whether the listener was part demon or not. Only that he was male."

"For our safety I believe that we should take Kohimu and Tisoki with us as well." Sango was saying, "But we would keep them away from the sea and away from the extermination itself." She paused, a small, clever smile breaking over her lips as she regarded her husband. "This means that _I_ will go with them this time and _you_ will stay with Riki, and Koudo."

Miroku's eyes closed heavily as he took in her words and registered them as unfortunately true. "Yes, yes, yes. That does make sense."

Sango grinned and clapped her hands together. "Great…when do we leave?"

"After I write Kagome and tell her our plans. Perhaps a week." Miroku rubbed his face with one hand and groaned. "I need a nap." He peeked through his fingers at Sango and smiled playfully, his violet eyes glittered. "Care to join me, lovely Sango?"

Kasai groaned and rose to her feet, "Can I go now?"

"Yes." Miroku answered her. He was still staring at Sango mischievously.

"Tell your brothers about this for us, would you Kasai?" Sango asked her, ignoring her husband for a moment.

"I will." Kasai slid the door shut behind her and let out a long breath before she moved into the hallway, calling for her brothers.

* * *

"Being a girl fucking sucks!" Akisame ranted, growlingly. She was holding her stomach and half bent over, her face was twisted with discomfort and disgust. There were two other girls sitting around her, both human.

"Aki—I can't believe you didn't have yours sooner or…" the girl fell silent and looked toward the other human girl awkwardly. The girls were identical twins, a rarity. It was also believed to be unlucky, a curse. Their birth had killed their mother but their father, a soft-hearted man from Kaede's village, had kept the daughters, rather than leaving them to the wilderness. They were utterly identical except in height. The one that had spoken was shorter and called Umou. The taller sister was named Appu.

Because twins were considered a thing of ill-omen they were slightly outcast. Akisame, being a quarter inuyoukai, fit in with them rather well, though she was popular in her own right. She preferred the twins however, because they didn't stare at her like she'd sprouted cucumbers from her ears when she cursed like her father in front of them.

Appu picked up where her sister Umou had left off. "Or maybe we both kinda thought you just didn't get _it, _because you're…Inuyasha-sama's daughter."

Akisame groaned and, without warning, jumped straight up into the air, snagging a branch and hauling herself onto it. "I _wish_ that was true." She grumbled.

The twins weren't startled by Akisame's sudden change in position. They knew that she was often a bit antsy, full of more energy than she could expel satisfactorily. Over time they'd grown accustomed to her behavior, just as Akisame didn't care that the twins always finished each other's thoughts.

The forest around them was silent except for the faint hissing of the wind in the treetops, just in the distance. Akisame shook her head, letting her long, straight black hair flow over her back. She crouched like Inuyasha on the branch, gripping it with bare feet and hands as one, more like a monkey than a human or an inuyoukai.

"It gets better." Umou told her, speaking upwards.

Akisame scoffed, "Heh. Yeah. If you say so."

"She's right, it does. It did for us both." Appu added encouragingly.

"Yeah, and it means you can have babies." Umou announced happily.

"You're a woman now." Appu finished cheerfully.

"Fuck that!" Akisame snarled, her golden eyes narrowing distastefully. She glanced to the sky, judging the hour swiftly and then sighed, glancing back down at the twins. "You should go home, it's getting late. I have to go home to the madhouse."

"Good luck, Aki." Appu called as she and her sister got to their feet and started walking through the trees, heading toward the village. Just beyond the trees was the well that led to the future.

Akisame watched the twins for a short while and then leaped after them like a squirrel through the tree branches. The leaves were starting to change, though it wasn't yet cold outside. She kept an eye on the girls to make sure they reached the path to the village safely, then paused to listen by ear to their progress. When the sounds had faded sufficiently without any shouting for help, Akisame dropped to the ground and raced away, plowing over the long grasses as she ran.

By the time she'd reached the gates around her family's home, Akisame had worked up a decent sweat along her hairline and at the back of her neck and between her small breasts. She stayed perched atop the wall for a time, perfectly motionless. Her eyes drifted closed and she willed herself to hear into the home, to determine the location and mood, if possible, of her whole family.

Kagome was chattering away happily with Shippo, who'd arrived unexpectedly to visit from his travels. She was in the kitchen; Akisame could smell the food cooking. Inuyasha was with them, adding to the conversation only occasionally, and sounding irritable with every word. Koinu was…

His voice didn't reach her at all, nor did his tread. Akisame opened her eyes and searched the yard and gardens, everything that she could see in front of her, but there was no sign of her older brother lounging around or stalking her…

She sighed and started to look behind her, slowly.

"Got ya!" like a cat Koinu leapt up the wall and landed right beside her.

Akisame screamed and lost her balance, only to have Koinu snatch her hand, holding her in place. As she leveled him with as powerful of a glare as she could, Koinu grinned innocently back at her. "Hey Aki—how's it going?"

Gripping the wall to keep her balance without him, Akisame growled and ripped her hand free of Koinu's. "You are _so_ stupid sometimes." She snarled, staring at the house. Her face rippled with worry, her shoulders were hunched dejectedly.

"Oh come on—it isn't that bad." Koinu sighed, staring at her, watching her face react. His blue eyes were warm and soft, full of caring and compassion. "Father isn't really angry with _you._ He's upset because he feels old, I think."

"That's not it." she sulked, picking absently at her toenail. She turned her amber eyes toward the darkening evening sky and let out a long sigh. "He's upset because I'm growing up, like I failed him or something." Her chin wrinkled briefly, a line formed over the bridge of her nose. "Heh! But it's not like I can fucking stop it."

Koinu reached for her, wrapping his arms around her. "He'll get over it. You know how he is." Koinu chuckled, "He's thinking now that all the boys will come after you like you're a bitch in heat and he'll never be able to sleep anymore he'll be so busy fighting all of them off."

Akisame shoved Koinu away, frowningly. "That's not even funny, stupid."

"Shippo's home. You know you want to go in there and hear his stories." Koinu grinned encouragingly and patted his sister on the back. "Come on…"

"Do I have a choice?" Akisame muttered sarcastically.

"Nope!" Koinu snatched her hand up in his own and leapt from the wall, half-pulling Akisame with him. The siblings landed easily on their feet and loped to the house, briefly pausing to dust their feet off before stepping in the door.

Kagome glanced up the moment she heard the door. She was working at a couple skewered fish over the fire pit. Her face was shiny with sweat; the fire coupled with the heat of the day overheated her swiftly. "Koinu! Akisame!" she grinned jovially, "You're just in time for dinner! And Shippo's come home too!"

The kit cast the siblings a quick once-over and then grinned. "You guys keep getting taller, like weeds!" he turned to Kagome and teasingly told her, "You saved all the really good stuff for them cuz I'm just not growing at all."

Inuyasha spoke up then, loudly, from the other room. "Feh! Runt—you're a fucking fox! Get used to it."

Kagome ignored her husband's cranky comment. "Isn't it true that youkai grow much more slowly, Shippo?"

The kit shrugged his shoulders. He was some unknown number of years old and still appeared as if he was only on the verge of becoming a teenager. Since the fall of Naraku two decades ago Shippo had grown out of his babyish form and into a boyish physique instead. His hair had remained a light, tawny brown. His tail had grown bushier; his powers had increased, becoming increasingly impressive. His eyes remained the same however, large, round and incredibly green. The mischief in them had increased with age though.

"I'm probably about to have another growth spurt or something." He replied to Kagome uncaringly. He appeared perfectly comfortable in a boy's skin but with the knowledge and experience of an adult.

Koinu and Akisame joined their father at the sitting table. Koinu sat closest to Inuyasha at one end while Akisame huddled next to her brother and stared at the table as if lost. Inuyasha sat with his arms crossed, seemingly failing to notice either of his offspring for a time before at long last he grunted and spoke. "Miroku wrote to your mother with some news."

Koinu's ears fell backward for a moment but his face transformed into a smirk. "Did Aunt Sango have another son?"

Inuyasha grinned, his sour mood abruptly appearing to shatter. He leaned forward and stared at his son openly. "Nope—he says they're coming to stay for a while with us, they had to check with _me_ of course." Arrogantly he sat back, appearing thoroughly satisfied with that idea.

"What did you tell Mom to say?" Koinu asked, cocking his head slightly to one side as he waited for the answer.

"I said it was fine." He stopped and scoffed, smiling dryly. "Feh. Only a few of them are coming anyway."

Almost timidly, which was out of character for her, Akisame at last added something to the conversation. "Who's coming?"

Inuyasha scowled, ears flattening. Akisame at once looked down, defeated. She might've expected a cold shoulder or even some underserved scolding from her father, but what he finally said made her frown and blush at once. "That damned monk's sons." He growled viciously, "I'm going to chew their hands off and a couple other things too if they as much as _look_ at you, Aki."

Akisame closed her eyes and growled. "Dad…" she lapsed into casual language, though Inuyasha didn't much care. Akisame was his baby, his only daughter. Her standards were different from Koinu's. A son had to show proper respect, a daughter…well, that was different.

"Stupid perverted fuckers." He snarled, staring off into the distance as if he could shout at the aforementioned boys at that very moment.

Shippo entered the room and sat casually at Akisame's side, gazing around curiously at the strange, strangled atmosphere of the room. "What did I miss? Inuyasha?"

The hanyou's eyes snapped up to Shippo and pinned him there, like the butterfly beneath the collector's pin. "The same goes for you, Shippo. If I catch you just lookin' at Aki the wrong way, I'll fucking tear your tail right off…"

Thankfully Kagome entered at that moment and overheard her husband as she set down the meal on the table. "Inuyasha! What are you saying?"

He sat back, shifting uneasily, exactly like a dog that had been caught potentially doing something wrong. Kagome was the only creature capable of making the hanyou ashamed of himself or his language. "Feh! I'm just making it clear how things are going to be while Miroku's perverts are living with us." He tossed Akisame a quick glance and then glared at Shippo suspiciously.

Akisame groaned and leaned forward, purposefully blocking Inuyasha's view of the kit at her side. "Dad! Cut it _out!"_

"What?" Inuyasha snarled, looking for all the world as if he was utterly innocent and felt that he'd done nothing wrong. "Why the hell are you all staring at me like that? Miroku and Sango have a bunch of fuckin' perverts!" he reached across the table and snagged one of the fish from the plate, hauling it back to his end of the table, leaving a trail of oils and grease as he did. Before taking his first bite he tossed out one final thought. "Even their daughter is a hentai."

Koinu's ears flattened on his skull, his face blushed red. He glared once at his father but Inuyasha was busying himself with the fish and didn't notice his son's discomfort.

"Really?" Shippo asked, grinning widely. "Why didn't anyone tell me about that sooner—that's hilarious!"

Kagome frowned disapprovingly. "Inuyasha—we have napkins. Shippo, please, it isn't all that funny." Kagome's warm brown eyes strayed to her son and she smiled faintly, trying to comfort him.

"I'm sure you'll see it." Inuyasha muttered around a full mouth. "And Kagome's right—it ain't very funny."

* * *

When Kagome came to bed that night, she found Inuyasha already there and digging feverishly through the drawers of their nightstand. Kagome kept a calendar there and an organizer to help her keep track of time. The room was poorly lit, anything that Inuyasha found he certainly couldn't have read very easily.

"Inuyasha?" she called, uncertainly.

The hanyou looked up at her and at once demanded, "Kagome—when's the next new moon?"

She blinked, startled into stammering. "What—why—it's…"

His ears laid flat and he sighed, tossing a few papers away. "Dammit."

Concernedly, Kagome stepped into the room and knelt at her husband's side, reaching out to tweak his ears. He responded by moaning thickly in the back of his throat and leaning against her, nuzzling into her neck more like a child than a lover. Kagome sighed and wrapped her free arm around him as she continued to stroke his ears. "Inuyasha?" she asked softly, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He murmured, touching his lips to her neck, inhaling deeply. "You smell like fish and fire smoke."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Thank you, I guess." It was common for Inuyasha to tell her something like that almost as if it was a compliment. She pinched his ear, changing the sensation for him and making him gasp a little. "Tell me what's bothering you, Inuyasha."

He growled, flicking his ears now, trying to escape her though he made no effort to pull away from her physically. "Just tell me when the next new moon is."

Reluctantly, Kagome moved away from the hanyou and to the nightstand, searching briefly for her calendar. She moved to the window and opened the screens wide to search for some extra light to read by. The moon glared in at her, half-full.

"It's waning right now, Inuyasha." She told him, squinting her eyes at the calendar.

Inuyasha had stretched himself out on their bed and now lied on his back, staring at the ceiling almost blankly. "When, Kagome?"

"A few weeks…" she closed the calendar and turned to look at him perplexedly, shaking her head. "Why was it so important for you to know? Are you planning on going anywhere?" he tended to avoid traveling when the new moon was near.

He let out a long sigh. "No reason." Turning his head to stare at her, his amber eyes glittered wetly in the dark. "Are you coming to bed or what?"

Kagome circled the futon and placed the calendar back on the nightstand. As she started to shed her clothes she decided to try to decipher her husband again. "Does this have something to do with Akisame?"

His ears swiveled on the bed and he made a face. "Hell no…"

There was something in his tone and his denial that struck Kagome as odd. He was lying. Tiredly she slipped into her nightclothes, a satin set of pajamas from the modern era. She'd never been able to cure herself of enjoying modern clothing over the dress of the Feudal Era.

As she crawled into bed Inuyasha slipped out for a moment and stood by the window, glaring at the moon as if he had a few choice words to say to it and a few teeth he wanted it to meet. At last, when he glanced back and caught her staring at him worriedly, he scoffed and shut the screens, cutting off the moonlight completely. Then he shrugged off is haori, hakama, and the under clothing. When he climbed into bed with her he was completely naked, a habit he'd developed after a few years of living and sleeping with her. Why bother wearing anything to bed when sex could happen anytime? It was just one less step to worry about. Of course in the wintertime he tended to wear more to bed, but this day had been warm as it was still early autumn.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and snuggled into her. But instead of saying goodnight he grunted and muttered in her ear, "Your hair smells like food. Smells like fish."

"Thank you, Dogboy." She yawned, "I'm glad you like it."

(A/N: Once, when I was staying with my boyfriend, I put on my nightly facial cream, an antibiotic to fight acne. My boyfriend told me that night and the next morning that it made my face stink. Oh yes, on top of morning breath and oily skin and messy morning hair, my face stunk. I figured even more than someone like my boyfriend, Inuyasha would be very into smells. So when Kagome smells like food, he's going to tell her about it, probably repetitively. Because unlike my boyfriend who over and over again tells me he loves me and that I'm beautiful and all that lovely jazz, Inuyasha just isn't nice and gushy like that. And the naked thing…it just struck me as Inuyasha. Can anyone guess just why he's so concerned with the new moon? A preview of the next chapter waiting in line:

_"Aki has a point, and anyway, you know what Father said. I can't leave Aki alone. Not for a second." He smirked, his blue eyes glittering intelligently. "I mean obviously all the male youkai and all the men are out here looking for her because she's **a woman now…"**_

_"Oh heh!" Akisame grunted viciously, snarling, "Go to hell Koinu!"_

_Now Shippo's face blanked. Slowly he shook his head, "No…I can't cook anything!"_

_"I say we just find an old log like Dad taught us. There's gotta be some grubs or something…" Akisame noted the disgusted look her brother was throwing her and shrugged innocently. "What? **Dad** would do it."_


	4. Reunion and the Ningyo

A/N: I was rereading a chapter of _Runaway_ that was posted, as you read this, a while ago. Yet, when I wrote it from my perspective it wasn't very long ago because I'm writing those final chapters at the same time as I'm writing these beginning chapters. So I reread it and saw an error and I'm so hideously embarrassed. I need to proofread these before I post them, I apologize. Anyway, my mistake, it reads something like, "Inuyasha grabbed the breads around his neck" obviously, I meant BEADS. The sad thing is I think I wrote that with my old computer. The new one has screwed me up a bit, for some reason I hit the spacebar when I don't mean to and often type things wrong even though the keyboard with my new computer seems unchanged.

Disclaimer: Nope, I only own Akisame, Koinu, and (takes a deep breath) Kohimu, Tisoki, Kasai, Masuyo, Riki, and Koudo. Ouch, I pity Sango. Oh, also I own Ginrei, Hanone, and Saya. Of course, you might not ever meet them here…oh and Tsukiyume and Shimofuri too.

Last Chapter: Sango and Miroku are preparing to exterminate a migratory youkai that lives at sea, a whale they believe. It lures men into the sea to eat them. Akisame briefly discussed her frustrations over being female to twin sisters, Appu and Umou. Shippo has come home. Koinu and Akisame learned that Inuyasha and Kagome will have Sango and whichever of her children she brings with her living with them for a time. Inuyasha freaked at the idea of anything male even looking at Aki the wrong way. Later, with Kagome, he worried about the new moon for some unknown reason.

* * *

**Reunion and the Ningyo**

Inuyasha decided to send Shippo and Koinu on the road to meet Sango and the other slayers partway. At first he wouldn't have even considered sending Akisame, but she begged and pleaded until at last Kagome joined the battle and convinced the stubborn hanyou to let Akisame travel with them. Shippo and Koinu were old enough and strong enough to protect her—and Shippo was _family,_ not about to become interested in Akisame sexually.

Begrudgingly, Inuyasha allowed her to leave with them. He made sure to pull Koinu aside, however, on the morning that they set out and to order him to keep careful watch on Aki. It went without saying that Koinu would do that anyway, but he assured his father that everything would be fine—not that such assurances calmed Inuyasha's overly paternal paranoia.

Kagome fussed over her children and Shippo for a time, trying to make them food as snacks for the journey. Part of the reason she did this didn't stem from motherly concern—it came from the knowledge that Akisame and Koinu would eat _anything_, much like Inuyasha, if they were hungry. They weren't all that picky. Koinu had a finer sense of taste and tended to mimic Kagome as far as his favorite dishes, but overall if there was nothing else to eat he would join his sister picking at roots and insects in the soil. If they were in the modern era she shuddered to consider what they might get into along the side of a road—road kill certainly, crows and other scavengers…

At last, by midmorning, Koinu, Shippo, and Akisame set off. Without Kagome or any other humans to be concerned with, the three traveled off the road. Shippo had matured enough over the years that he had gained the ability to take on his true form and did so while they journeyed. Koinu and Akisame used the trees as Inuyasha would've. This kept the curious eyes away from their group that otherwise would've found them if they'd used the road.

They talked little while traveling but unanimously settled as soon as the nighttime fell thick over the rolling hills and forests. Shippo reclaimed his bipedal form and used his fox fire to start up the camp. The kit wasn't hungry as his companions were and instead sat back and relaxed, listening calmly to the siblings argue. It was much like it had been while Shard hunting, making the kit nostalgic. The major exception now, however, was that these were Inuyasha and Kagome's _children_ so there wasn't any entertaining romantic tension between them, just annoyance and sibling rivalry. But that in itself was hysterical enough.

Both Akisame and Koinu wanted to hunt. Neither of them wanted to clean the kill or prepare it. By way of conservation, neither wanted to eat the food Kagome had given them either. This was one difference they had from their father. Inuyasha would've eaten the food that Kagome had provided and then not bothered to clean or cook his kills at all.

"I'm older and my nose is better than yours." Koinu held his chin up confidently, sniffing. He was staring at his sister across the flickering, bright orange tongues of the fire.

"Like hell it is, stupid! And yeah you're older—and senile too." Akisame snarled, baring her white fangs at him. In her mouth, set in her otherwise perfectly human-like face, Akisame's teeth were almost unnerving. She was less reminiscent of a dog than she was to some kind of wildcat or panther. "Besides with your hair white like that even the sleeping birds will see you coming."

Koinu winced as if her words hurt him. His ears flattened. "You've always been jealous because I look like Father. And this…" he pulled on his hair rather violently, "…_always_ worked for Father." Both siblings were fine hunters but they were well aware that Inuyasha surpassed them several times over. The hanyou could smell things they couldn't, he could see things they missed, and his claws somehow found more vital, mortal areas to pierce than their inexperienced blows ever could. They might come away with dirt and blood all over their clean clothes and get their mother's wrath while having _nothing_ in the way of meat to show for it. No meat, just mess.

"I am _not_ jealous! Why would I want to look like Dad when I'm a _girl?"_ Akisame glared murderously.

"Easy—because everyone says that Sesshomaru's daughters are _exquisitely_ beautiful. And they have this same hair." Koinu grinned, thinking he'd trapped her and continuing to yank on his own hair in demonstration.

Akisame crossed her arms over her chest, looking very much, except for her golden eyes, like Kagome imitating Inuyasha's pouting. "Heh! I guess that makes _you_ exquisitely _beautiful_, doesn't it, Koinu?"

As Koinu frowned, realizing that the tables had turned, Shippo at last interrupted them, laughing loudly. "You guys are sad!" he snorted through his nose gleefully, grinning. His fangs gleamed wetly in the firelight. "The fighting doesn't feed you guys any faster and you're starting to smell like hunger. What would Kagome think of you?"

Koinu's ears flattened, his face colored. He mumbled something that might've been agreement; it might've also been a weak attempt to make Shippo shut up. No one could tell. It was Akisame that reacted as Inuyasha would've: "Who the hell asked you? Heh! Why don't _you_ cook for us, you pus—"

At once Koinu shushed her, making a hissing sound. "Aki! Don't say that!"

The girl huffed exasperatedly and started to curse again, now with the venom aimed at her brother, but Koinu interrupted her, suddenly landing on an idea. "Yeah—Shippo you _should_ cook it."

The kit looked uninterested and absolutely unconvinced that this was in any way a likely solution. He rolled his green eyes skyward. "And what makes you think that _I _can cook? I'm just a kid."

"You're over 20 fuckin' years old!" Akisame growled, jabbing a clawed finger at him as if she'd caught him in a lie.

Koinu scoffed, "Fine! _I'll_ cook it Aki—_you_ can scrounge for grubs. And Shippo, you can catch it."

Both the kit and Akisame fought this proclamation immediately. "But I'm not even going to eat the stupid thing!" "What the hell, Koinu? Grubs while you eat real meat? To hell with that!"

"That's the way it's going to be if I cook it." Koinu growled, at last beginning to lose his temper. "So get used to it, both of you!"

And that was why they ended up going to bed hungry.

* * *

The men and women of the tiny village were bent over in the rice fields, their sunhats shading their heads and shoulders. They were rank with sweat, every last one of them. The day had grown hotter and hotter, and the humidity was stupefying. It was the stickiness between Kasai's fingers, the shine on her face, the frizz in her straight black hair.

It almost exhausted Kasai enough that she didn't look at the men in the fields as they passed…almost.

One of the men straightened and pulled his sunhat free, wiping his brow tiredly. Kasai, walking in the middle between her older brothers, slowed a bit, caught by the man's shoulders, his biceps. He wasn't wearing a shirt. Sweat collected in the hollows between his muscles on his chest and back. The hair on his head was thick and glistening with sweat. Kasai caught sight of the dark bloom of hair on his underarms as he wiped his brow. She looked quickly away, her heart pounding.

Those powerful arms, the wide shoulders…

"You're falling behind, Sis." Masuyo bumped into her backsides, pushing her playfully. He was thirteen, just barely beginning to sprout up out of his pudgy, child's body.

Kasai startled and then sighed, the tension leaving her body. "I'm sorry Masuyo."

She picked up her speed again, but her eyes wandered back to the man. He was bent over now, stooped and digging at the ditch. His peasant pants had slipped, revealing the beginning of his butt cheeks, the line like cleavage. Kasai laughed and turned away again, back to the midst of her family. She caught Kohimu staring at her, his face torn apart by disgust. Kasai dropped her eyes to the ground, suddenly full of shame.

As they passed through the huts, a young man about the same age as Kasai stumbled out of one just before the slayers passed by. He paused to gawk and, as he saw Kasai, grinned mischievously. Sango glared at him as she passed but the boy only had eyes for Kasai. Sango didn't need to nudge Kohimu before her firstborn son was falling behind to walk directly at Kasai's side, like a body guard.

"Greetings, beautiful." The boy leered at Kasai, starting to walk toward her and forward to keep pace. Kasai turned her head and saw him for the first time. She started to smile back—though he was a scrawny member of the male population and not really worth a grope—but then felt something hard and solid bump into her shoulder. Dazedly she found her brother at her side, glaring furiously beyond her at the other boy.

"Get away, boy." He ordered, his voice deep and mature. Kohimu was almost nineteen, fully mature for the Feudal era and ready to be married. If the siblings hadn't looked so much alike it could easily have appeared that Kohimu was actually escorting his wife, not his younger sister.

The boy frowned but stopped, apparently intimidated. The slayers left him behind.

"You have to be careful, Kasai." Kohimu spoke abruptly, his face stern. He wasn't looking at Kasai, but rather at the road ahead. "You never know what kind of danger you could be in."

Kasai scowled. "I'm not some defenseless village girl."

Kohimu ignored her and left her, jogging away to join their mother, leading the way. Kohimu was the oldest, the strongest, possibly the handsomest of her brothers. Kasai had often harbored a not-so-secret envy. Kohimu appeared, by family rumor, to be Sango's favorite. He was the only one of Sango's three eldest children that wasn't a pervert. Now, watching Kohimu take his place at Sango's side, with his gray-blue robes, his proud, muscular build, Kasai felt her old jealousy again. She turned her eyes away, burying her emotion.

They traveled onward, leisurely but at a steady pace.

When at last the heat of the day had begun to recede as the sun dipped down toward the horizon, Kasai felt a tingle run down her spine. She looked up, startled by the sensation. The feeling changed, becoming one she identified as her ability to sense youkai auras, inherited from her father. As backup she looked toward Tisoki and found his eyes already pinned on her, questioningly.

"You feel that too, Kasai?" he asked.

"Yes." She found the sensation and emptied her mind, calling on her instincts. _Canine. Feline. Carnivore. Kitsune._ "It's a fox."

Ahead of them on the road a shape appeared, as if called by Kasai's words. Four-legged, with a long, bushy tail that it held high and waved as if it were a soldier marching into battle with a banner. It moved gracefully, almost appearing to strut like a trained show horse, regal and pampered. But it wasn't a horse; it was a fox, a kitsune.

Sango spotted it immediately and halted. Kohimu stopped as well, his hands moving at once to the bow that was strapped to his back.

The fox sat in the middle of the road, its ears upright and alert. Then its mouth fell open in a toothy, leering grin. Its eyes were a bright, shining green.

Sango sighed and made a motion to Kohimu, signaling him to stand down. His stance changed, relaxing slightly, but his hands remained ready to grab a weapon. Behind him Kasai and Tisoki were also tensed, ready to defend themselves. Masuyo, too short to see clearly beyond the others, poked his head between Kasai and Tisoki, trying to see what was going on.

"Shippo?" Sango queried aloud, shouting to the fox.

The kitsune dipped its head and closed its eyes. Its shape smoldered, as if catching on fire. A heartbeat later the kitsune shape was gone, Shippo stood in its place with his arms crossed. "Of course it's me!" he grinned.

The slayers relaxed as one and advanced to greet the kit. Tisoki and Kohimu were especially well-bonded with the fox, though as they'd aged they'd seen less and less of him. Shippo was inclined to travel; it was in his nature as a kitsune.

"I think you've gotten bigger!" Sango exclaimed, smiling nostalgically as she came closer to Shippo, taking him in. "Definitely gotten taller…"

The kit shrugged noncommittally. "Inuyasha thinks I'm done growing."

"Is he here?" Tisoki asked, turning to look around them. Sometimes Inuyasha chose unusual ways to greet them, like sneaking up on them if he could. His aura wasn't demonic, not truly, so he could almost escape Kasai, Miroku, and Tisoki's radars. The hanyou took advantage of this at times by ambushing them on the road.

Shippo shook his head. "Nah, he stayed back with Kagome. Koinu and Aki are with me though."

"Where are they?" Sango asked. Her tone indicated her surprise, though exactly what about wasn't clear.

"They are fighting like cats and dogs a ways behind me." Shippo sighed at this, disgustedly. "They're worse than your whole family—and there's only _two_ of them!"

Sango and a few of her boys chuckled, laughing with disbelief at his words, but as Shippo opened his mouth to fight for this claim, he saw the slayers glance beyond him, toward the road behind him. Shippo didn't turn to look; his excellent youkai hearing already told him what was coming: Koinu and Akisame. They were still arguing, and now the slayers could see it as well as hear it. Shippo stepped back, falling in at Sango's side as they started walking again. He crossed his arms over his chest and harrumphed. "See what I mean?"

"…you could try washing your feet once in a while." Koinu was grumbling in a low voice. His eyes were pointed downward, at the dirt. He failed to notice that the slayers were now visible, he was absorbed apparently just with taking one step after another through the wall of heat and humidity, and by bickering with Akisame of course.

"What? All that dirt is from _today_ dummy!" Akisame snapped, slugging him in the shoulder. She too might've turned her gaze back to the dirt but as she looked forward again she stopped, her face changing from one of disgust to frank and open surprise. She grabbed Koinu's arm and pulled on it, trying to get his attention. "Shippo found Sango and…"

"Huh?" Koinu at last looked up and came to a halt, staring ahead. The slayers were walking toward them already, most of them grinning and laughing.

Sango led the way with Kohimu close at one side and Shippo trailing at the other. She smiled, showing all of her teeth to the siblings. "Akisame! I haven't seen you since you were a little girl! When did your father start letting you out of his sight?"

This was a joke but to Akisame it hit a nerve. Her face soured immediately and she crossed her arms over her chest. Her golden eyes glared viciously, saying all the obscenities that her lips just couldn't utter as the first words said to her "aunt" of sorts. Ignoring Sango was rude as well, but Akisame was beyond caring. Her hormonal teenage mind was filled with Kagome's awkward "becoming a woman" speech and Inuyasha's cold, angry reaction to that same topic. Now Sango was tossing it out at her too?

Sango saw the girl's reaction and her lips curled into a hard smile, her eyes expressed worry. Apparently that was the wrong way to greet Inuyasha's only daughter. She decided to try her luck on Koinu before her sons and Kasai took over and mingled and teased uncontrollably. "Koinu! You're almost as tall as Inuyasha now, aren't you?"

He shrugged amicably, smiling. "It's good to see you, Aunt Sango."

Sango grinned, enjoying Koinu's easy going nature. Long ago she'd realized that Koinu took more after Kagome in this respect. "I'm not Inuyasha," she laughed, starting to walk, resuming their journey but now, for Koinu, Shippo, and Akisame, it was in the opposite direction, heading back to the coast. "You don't have to be formal or call me 'aunt' anything."

Koinu nodded to her and then found himself surrounded by Sango's boys. Tisoki nudged into his shoulder and jeered, "Are you any better with Tetsusaiga these days?"

"Are you any better with the ladies?" Koinu replied smoothly, unfazed. He smirked when Tisoki frowned at him.

"He's gotten a little better, I've been helping him." Kohimu inserted, taking up a position on Koinu's other side. His head cocked to one side as he registered Akisame walking just ahead of them. "Whoa…"

Koinu glanced between both brothers and saw that their attention had shifted as one to Akisame. They watched the girl's legs as they worked, making out the push and pull of her muscles as they moved beneath her skin. Akisame was dressed in a childish style still, a kimono that barely reached her knees. She'd secured it high on her waist to keep the top closed but to allow the bottom half a wider, freer range of movement. She needed it with the way she and Koinu preferred to travel, leaping and running. Before they'd left the estate on the coast, Kagome had given Akisame leggings, insisting that her daughter wear them—short kimono had a way of flying up after all—but Akisame had torn the leggings off and left them in a bush just outside of Kaede's village.

Now Koinu felt his face heat up, instantly flushing red. Anger pulsed through him, deep and instinctual. "What the hell are you looking at?" Koinu demanded, glaring between Kohimu and Tisoki.

Tisoki made a gulping sound that turned into a short, nervous laugh. "She's…got legs!"

Without thinking Koinu elbowed Tisoki in the stomach. The young pervert coughed and doubled over, stumbling and falling with the force of Koinu's blow. In his abrupt stop, Tisoki collided with Kasai and Masuyo both. All three fell in a heap into the dust.

Ears flattening, face burning, Koinu stopped and looked back ashamedly. Kohimu glared at him but mercifully said nothing.

"Tisoki?" Sango called concernedly, "What happened?"

Tisoki had yet to regain the ability to speak and, as Kasai and Masuyo pulled themselves out of the heap, he was soon the last one on the ground. Masuyo grumbled and dusted himself off. The youngest in the band of demon slayers currently, Masuyo gazed up at Koinu irritably, but the sight of Koinu's ears distracted him immediately. He grinned, forgetting the mishap that had sent him sprawling moments ago. "Nice ears! Why are you blushing?"

"Uh…" Koinu stammered stupidly, losing any semblance of thought, as his eyes landed on the only demon slayer that still intimidated him—Kasai.

She was dressed sleekly for travel, but in a mature style, unlike Akisame who denied and ran away from womanhood, Kasai nurtured it. Her kimono was baby blue and yellow, her feet were in simple sandals, her ankles were caked with dirt, as were her palms. There was a sword at her waist, short and small, designed for a woman's use: _Burikko._ In the time since Koinu had last seen her, Kasai hadn't grown any more height-wise, but her figure had filled in, curving beautifully. Her freckles had partly faded, the muscles in her neck stood out, strong and powerfully.

She lifted her violet eyes to him and blinked twice, ceasing all other movement. This was the first time in two years that she'd been able to admire him face to face. Following Kohimu, Tisoki, and Sango she'd only seen his backside before, fairly impressive all by itself. Koinu's lankiness had mostly vanished; his frame had grown thicker, bulking up. But his hakama and haori were too billowing and thick for her to see anything useful, so it was his face that stole her attention at last.

Two years ago Koinu had been stringy muscle, awkward and clumsy. Even his face was poorly adjusted. His nose was too big then, growing faster than the rest of him, his jaw too small. His lips had always been delicious, a fine, full mixture between Inuyasha and Kagome's, and his eyes a bright, intelligent blue. Seeing him before her, Kasai was taken aback. As a boy Koinu had been very handsome, but adolescence had been cruel to him—it was making up for it now. His jaw had caught up with the rest of his face, his ears were no longer too large for his head, his nose was neat, almost small…

She shouldn't have been surprised: both of his parents were beautiful, why should their son be any different?

It was Kohimu's turn now to be alarmed at the way another halfway familial male was staring at his younger sister. "Earth to Koinu…"

Koinu jumped as if caught sleeping on the job and glanced to Kohimu. "What?"

Stepping forward, Kohimu lowered his voice, trying to avoid letting others overhear him. "I won't stare at Aki if you won't stare at Kasai—okay?"

At once Koinu's face flushed brilliantly red. "No!" he pushed Kohimu away easily with one shoulder, making the older youth stumble with the force of it again. "Sorry." Koinu growled halfheartedly and searched Sango out where she was helping Tisoki up. His ears flattened and he turned away, sighing and growling in one.

Akisame appeared almost magically at his side. "It isn't so bad!" she peeped, mockingly, "Are you eating your words now, Older Brother?"

He snarled at her but the expression died in a tense laugh. "Shut up!"

* * *

Miles away, over the hills and ranges between the coastal lands and the Middle Lands, back inside the slayer's village, Miroku left his home dressed in his full monk regalia. Two little boys followed him, dressed neatly, the younger Koudo in green, the elder Riki in black. They walked with energy and enthusiasm, chattering animatedly.

Miroku passed through the bustling streets of the slayer's village, impressed with every person he saw. The village's success always startled and pleased him as much as it distressed him. The increased population meant that the town was being noticed, and oftentimes being noticed was _not_ a good thing. It was being noticed that had gotten Sango's family and the village before this one pillaged and burned by demons.

They moved to the center of the town where a small temple had been erected. Miroku led his boys to the door where they slipped out of their sandals and passed inside. Well-trained and for the most part obedient, both Koudo and Riki grew solemn, keeping their eyes downcast as they followed their father. Miroku nodded in greeting to several of the other worshippers and priests that they passed, and the boys snuck quick glances at these people, receiving warm smiles when their eyes met with the other's gaze.

Miroku moved to the alter and knelt, searching inside his robes for incense. He pressed the fragrant stick to the small candle in the alter and, when it smoldered and smoked, placed it into a cup filled with other such offerings.

At this time Koudo and Riki followed his example, kneeling before the alter.

What his boys prayed was of course their business, but Miroku always prayed in thanks—to do the job properly he could've stayed kneeling for hours. The years of his life spent without the weight of the curse in his hand always ready to suck him into it. He had never realized how horrible it was until it was removed and enough time had passed that he could look back at those days. With the continual threat of an early death hanging over him, Miroku cut away his own emotions, avoided giving himself over to others around him. Especially to Sango.

With the curse lifted he'd found himself completely free—even marrying Sango had seemed like a freedom then. To be bound to one woman…what punishment was that when his life had been restored to him?

And each child born, another blessing that he didn't deserve. Another year he wouldn't have lived to see and share with Sango and his children.

He sniffled and lifted his head gazing heavenward. For all his complaints he was content and happy. He had no right to ask for more, but here he was…

It was a steadily increasing pain for Miroku to realize that his children were _growing up._ They were _leaving him behind._ One in particular haunted him most of all: Kasai, the jewel, the spitfire, his precious, only daughter.

Kohimu and Tisoki were old enough that they could enter into marriage negotiations, and Miroku had little doubt that soon Kohimu would actually go through with it. Unlike Tisoki, Kohimu was at a normal level of perversion and could control himself. When puberty hit the boy had been just as interested in mastering archery as he was drawn to explore female bodies. Someday soon Kohimu would find a woman that pleased him and he would marry, in his own time. All of Miroku's sons likely would, unless they chose monkhood and stuck with it.

But even if both Kohimu and Tisoki married, they would probably stay close to Miroku and Sango; perhaps they might even live together, sharing the same household. Yet, by tradition Kasai would be forced to leave her parent's home and join her husband's instead. Miroku could keep his sons close; his only daughter was a different story. And already she was old enough to be married. Within the last year Miroku had found himself assaulted by would-be suitors, seeking his permission that a marriage might take place. Most of the offers were silly and Miroku turned them away with little thought, but others could've been fine matches, letting Kasai live richly, without ever having to work again…

Still he turned them away, all the while shocked that the time had come so soon. How long could he put it off? The problem was made worse by a fact that he could hardly deny, even to himself, any longer: Kasai was a hentai, she had inherited his curse. Unless he married her off she would probably succumb to her own perverted, curious nature. That could lead to a bastard child and unspeakable shame on the entire family. No matter how beautiful and talented Kasai was, no respectable potential husband would propose a marriage to a woman with a bastard child.

He prayed often about it, though he scarcely knew what it was he expected would come of such prayers…

He caught Koudo peeking at him; one of the little boy's rich brown eyes was popped open, squinting at him. Miroku smirked and murmured in his deep, calm fatherly voice, "Concentrate on your prayers, Koudo."

"Yes, Daddy."

There were other reasons to pray on this day, however, aside from his usual worries. For the safe journey of his wife and older children. For the safe journey of Akisame and Koinu and Shippo as well. For fair weather on the coast. And certainly for safety as they fought the demon they were hunting. _Please, let the boys never hear its song, protect my sons…_

At last Miroku rose to his feet, sighing heavily. Koudo and Riki followed after him demurely. The small family exited the temple and headed home.

* * *

The sun drew lower and lower on the horizon, blazing a fiery red, as if the edge of the world had caught fire. Fishermen hauled their catches out of the sea, propped their boats up on the beach out of reach of the tide. They returned back to their feeble little village to join their families around the fires in their hearths, always cooking fish. They lived and died by the rise and fall of the tides, by the passing of the seasons and the migrations of the sea creatures, the fishes, the sharks, the seals, the whales, porpoises, and dolphins.

An old man, a grandfather, his hands and face worn and weathered into a leathery map of wrinkles by the sea and by time, sat around the orange light of the fire. The evening was warm and moist, the family stayed outside that evening, munching merrily on the fish that their father and grandfather and a few of the oldest sons had brought in from the sea that same day and the day before. They were wiry people, going through feasts and famines intermittedly. Now was a feast, but it wouldn't last forever.

The old man wiped the fish oils from his lips and began to mutter a story. So close to the fire the family couldn't see the stars, which was one usual source of entertainment, and they wouldn't dare to leave the smoke of the fire because of the flies and mosquitoes of the summertime. They began the old stories as always.

Before the story had gotten very far, one of the family's sons grumbled and, pushing the stick that had been used to skewer his particular fish into the fire, got up and started to walk away. He was a lean, skinny boy, barely a man. He wasn't handsome, but his small dark eyes shone with intelligence, though that was currently marred with irritation.

"Where are you going, Meiun?" his mother called around a mouthful of fish. A little of it went skittering into the fire and her younger children laughed at her, pointing their fingers at her rudely. Their father scolded them and slapped their hands down, trying to impart manners onto them.

"I'm not in the mood for a story tonight." The boy answered, sighing. He'd moved far enough away from the fire now that he could look up and see the stars spread out above him. Blinking and twinkling in the spread of whiteness that was the Milky Way. He thought of a girl on the other, distant side of their village, further down on the beach. Sata with her giggling laugh and the little wrinkle above her nose…

"You should always listen to the old stories." His grandfather counseled in a deep, serious voice. "They are important; we remember them for a reason!"

"I'm going to go for a walk." Meiun told them, as if he hadn't heard his grandfather's words at all. His family allowed him to go, he was a man now, just turned 16. They wouldn't stop him, only his father had that power and the Meiun's father remained silent, sucking the marrow out of his fish bones.

The grandfather grumbled about Meiun's disrespect for a time and then began another story, a children's cautionary tale. In his deep, somber voice, which was most perfect for telling such stories, he began to recite the tale to his younger grandchildren. They stared at him, entranced, with wide, innocent eyes.

"_This is the story of the sea's mighty wrath. This is why you children must be very careful never to stray far, for even adults have reason to fear. The sea is a cruel woman. She is always ready to harm you. She feeds you, but the fish she offers may be poison. It was she that released the world out of her womb in the beginning times, but there are other times when her temper rages. She does not much like mankind…"_

Meiun walked just out of sight of the dark ocean. Its waves rolled, impossibly loud, to crash onto the rocky shores. Although the warmth of summer was still clinging to the air on land, the ocean hadn't forgotten the winter and she never would. The wind off the water was chilly, making Meiun pick up his pace, trying to keep his blood pumping vigorously to dispel the chill he felt away from the fire and his family.

His thoughts were on simple, beautiful Sata…

And then he heard the woman's voice, high and fluting, coming from the beach through the trees.

"_Once, long, long ago, there was the Whale God, Hakugei. He was a massive creature, as big as an island! As big as a typhoon cloud rolling onto the shore! Hakugei, for all his size, was a gentle monster. He ate small fish and spouted water out a hole on top of his head to amuse and frighten fisherman. The whales are his children. He allowed mankind to hunt them, for he understood that mankind took only what he needed to survive. There were many, many whales, and so few men. The whales' spirits were reborn with each new generation, they did not mind the sacrifice. One day, Hakugei spotted a beautiful maiden swimming in the shallows. He fell in love with her and approached her in the water. The maiden was overcome by his grand size, and because her father and her brothers were fishermen, she understood his benevolence and his sacrifice for mankind. She gave herself to him as a wife does to her husband."_

Meiun pushed his way through the trees, pawing at a few spider webs that caught him in the face. He found himself on the beach, staring at the darkness of the water. The night was dark, the moon was waning quickly and the sky had begun to become overcast. The stars were fading as the invisible clouds passed over them, blocking out their light. The ocean's waves made a great deal of noise, but very little light reflected from the surface at all.

Someone unfamiliar with the sea would've found it odd or unnerving, but Meiun had spent his entire life beside the sea. This wasn't unusual at all, it was just one more weather pattern that his family's mistress exhibited, it was just another mood…

"_When the maiden returned to her family she was carrying Hakugei's child. They were all shocked and very angry with her for her carelessness. The maiden's family understood why she had done it and accepted her back into their midst—all but her eldest brother. When the day came that she gave birth to Hakugei's child, the maiden's eldest brother slit her throat to erase the shame from his family. Then, ignoring his family's guidance, he took the newborn child and cast it into the sea. Hakugei rescued his child, a daughter, and took her as his own. He mourned the maiden's undeserved death, for he had loved her very much, as he loved all mankind in those days. But as his daughter grew Hakugei became more and more bitter over the loss of his human lover and he whispered this resentment to the whales, his children with the sea, and they began to share those sentiments. Whales began to fight fisherman, killing them if they could, dragging them to the depths of the ocean, eating them alive."_

The high, sweet song came again, drawing Meiun closer to the water. He searched the beach, narrowing his eyes. The sound was so beautiful, so haunting, it didn't sound like a cry for help, but Meiun was drawn toward the sea to investigate nonetheless.

Clouds skidded beyond the moon, letting the ghostly, pale light hit the water and illuminate the beach slightly. Meiun paused then, at last seeing something in the water. It was bright, like the waves that crested as they approached the shore, but unlike them this object stayed further out in the chilly seawater. It was like a fish or a seal or…a whale? A dolphin or a porpoise. A true whale was too massive to come so close to shore without beaching itself, and then it would look like a massive, bulbous rock, something so unusual that Meiun would never miss it. This thing was subtler…was it the thing that was singing?

_The youngest child, a little girl, piped up in her small voice. "What about Hakugei's daughter?"_

_The grandfather sat back, smiling widely, revealing a few gaps where he'd lost teeth. "Ah, a smart one you are, girl. I was just getting to her…"_

The sounds came again, sweet and haunting. Meiun had never heard sophisticated music, nothing more than the wind, the sea, the storms, and a few trinkets that came to their remote village through trade. A polished wooden flute that one family kept as a treasured heirloom, a little drum that a brother-in-law owned.

Irresistibly, Meiun walked forward until his feet were washed by the surf. He narrowed his eyes, squinting at the white shape, almost glowing beneath the waves. There were times when the ocean gleamed an eerie, ghostly green with bioluminescent plankton, but this was the wrong color, and it was so localized…and the shape moved independently of the waves…

Suddenly, as the nearest wave surged forward, the white glow moved with it, swelling as it came closer to shore. Meiun gasped as the sound increased, humming through the air, he felt the sound inside his chest, thrumming…

"_She has many names, but whatever she is called, Hakugei's daughter is a demon. A monster that comes out of the sea at night to exact revenge for her mother's death. Always she lures fishermen into the sea with her song and they are never seen again. Sisters and wives can walk beside their husbands and brothers and they hear the song and cry as their men leave them, walking straight into the sea as if into a loved one's arms."_

The white shape broke through the surface just as the sound became unbearable, crashing on Meiun's ears. He screamed, but his own sounds were drowned out by this creature's noise. Pain, stabbingly sharp, pierced through Meiun's ears and into his brain. He stumbled backward, cutting his foot open on the rocks of the beach. He fell hard, his head landed on the rocks with a sickening _crack_ that was impossible to hear over the demon's song.

"_We call her Ningyo. She is a vengeful demon of the sea that preys on fisherman. You must always remember to be careful while walking on the beach at night. Never listen for her song, once you hear it, you are lost if you are a man."_

The sound stopped, mercifully. Meiun lied stunned, shuddering with shock and pain. His eyes had stopped working with the blow to his head as the ocular portion of his brain was injured, perhaps dying. He blinked and whimpered pathetically, aware of pain and of the grayness that had taken over his eyes. Grayness? Where was the black of the sky? The milky light of the moon and the stars?

A white creature rose up on two legs and stepped out of the frothing surf. Her hair was long, flowing down to her wide curving hips. It was a deep, blue-black, like the sea had been before the moon came out, moments before Meiun met with disaster. She was naked as she knelt at Meiun's side and laid her hands on his wiry, lanky body.

_The little girl grinned, looking between her grandfather and her older brothers. "Girls are safe! I can go walking on the beach any time I want then!"_

_Her grandfather sighed, "You must never assume you're safe! You should never try to taunt Ningyo! She is a demon! You must never underestimate creatures greater than you are…"_

Meiun shuddered, registering an unfamiliar, cold, clammy touch on his body. "Wh—what—who…" he gasped, straining his eyes, frowning, desperately trying to see. His hands moved, rising to try and fight her off, but they were weak and shaking.

The woman, so pale she was seemingly iridescent, grinned savagely down at him, revealing a mouth full of conical teeth, each one identical to the next, like the inside of a dolphin's mouth. Taking his head firmly in her hands, she lifted his head while he feebly tried to fight her, and slammed it down, letting the rocks split open his skull. Blood and brains coated the rocks below Meiun now, but the tide would soon wash them away, cleansing the site of the killing.

The woman dragged his body away toward the sea and disappeared back into it, nothing but a glowing white shape passing through the surf, with a dark, bleeding shape trailing behind her.

* * *

A/N: Ningyo, by the way, means "Mermaid" in Japanese. A preview for next time!

_"Whatever." Akisame brushed her off, picking up a little speed to walk more in line with Shippo and Masuyo. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her brother's body with Kasai. Partly it was a betrayal to him, and the rest of it was simply **not** something she wanted to spend brainpower contemplating. _

_Unfortunately, Kasai wasn't ready to let her go. The young slayer reached out and took a gentle hold of Akisame's arm, pulling the younger girl closer as she lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I know this is going to sound bad Aki, but…" Kasai's tone dropped to an actual whisper and somehow the slayer failed to notice the way the younger girl was twisting, and cringing, trying to get away from her. "…is his hair the same color in…other places?"_


	5. Sleeping Arrangements

A/N: Not much to say…sometimes this is hard to write, fun but hard. Sorry for my delay. Spent like all of the break moving into my new apartment. Whew…it's good to get away from my smelly roommate who didn't brush her teeth. Sad that my boyfriend has left for his college again. Classes started again. 16 credits, all of them English. Woot. The privacy of this apartment will hopefully mean I'll be writing A LOT more…

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own, no onwage. Just the kids.

Last chapter: A strange creature attacked a young man on the coast, killing him. Akisame, Koinu, and Shippo met up with Sango, Kohimu, Tisoki, Kasai, and Masuyo. They're heading for Kagome and IY's estate. Kohimu and Tisoki are eyeing up Akisame. That's about it. Also, Ningyo means "mermaid," at least according to the silly online translator I use.

* * *

**Sleeping Arrangements**

The journey to Kagome and Inuyasha's home around Kaede's village was done mostly with awkwardness. Koinu watched Kohimu and Tisoki especially with suspicion, trying to keep them away from Akisame while Kohimu kept a close eye on Koinu and whether or not he seemed to be paying undue attention to Kasai. The women in the group ended up bonding together, as was true of the original Shard-Hunters in their time. Kasai, Sango, and Akisame walked together, sometimes leading the way, other times falling behind and talking or admiring the day. Shippo and Masuyo joined them, having the advantage—although in Shippo's case it was a misleading appearance—of being young boys.

Mostly it was Sango and Kasai that walked and talked together. Akisame occasionally added something halfheartedly or with only mild interest. She wasn't like Kasai and Sango, she was actually more like one of the boys. She fell into talking more with Shippo and Masuyo than with the two women.

"Shippo, are you ever going to grow up?" Sango teased, playfully. Shippo's tail flicked a short ways ahead of her and he made a small snuffling sound.

"I'm a lot bigger than I was." He replied, absolutely unaffected by her taunting. His innocent, boyish physique and appearance had served him very well many times and he'd never regretted the way he looked though it seemed everyone expected him to.

Kasai turned her attention to the quiet, almost unresponsive Akisame and smirked. "Your brother sure grew up."

Blinking once, Akisame stared at Kasai and frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Kasai's violet eyes slid forward to land on Koinu's back and shoulders, on his long, flowing white hair topped by the white dog ears. "He filled out. I remember him as a scrawny little mutt."

As she spoke, one of Koinu's ears turned backward, taking note of the conversation. The motion wasn't missed by Akisame, but Kasai was oblivious.

"Whatever." Akisame brushed her off, picking up a little speed to walk more in line with Shippo and Masuyo. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her brother's body with Kasai. Partly it was a betrayal to him, and the rest of it was simply _not_ something she wanted to spend brainpower contemplating.

Unfortunately, Kasai wasn't ready to let her go. The young slayer reached out and took a gentle hold of Akisame's arm, pulling the younger girl closer as she lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I know this is going to sound bad Aki, but…" Kasai's tone dropped to an actual whisper and somehow the slayer failed to notice the way the younger girl was twisting, and cringing, trying to get away from her. "…is his hair the same color in…other places?"

Akisame at last lost her temper and snarled viciously, ripping her arm away from Kasai. Her face was a bright, intense red. "What the fuck!"

Kasai's face blushed red slightly, but the girl fought it off, acting as though she were innocent. "That isn't even a bad question! It's just curiosity! And I don't _expect _you to know, I just _hoped…"_ when she reached for Akisame again the younger girl slapped her hands away fiercely, actually making Kasai cry out with the strength behind the blows.

"_Pervert!"_ Akisame snarled at last and leapt ahead, putting some distance between herself and Kasai. She stopped when she was walking at Koinu's side and kept pace with him.

Sango covered her face with her hands and murmured her daughter's name hopelessly. "Kasai, for goodness sake…why would you ask _his sister_ something like _that?"_

Still blushing, Kasai shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I don't understand what the big deal is, Mother!" her voice was high and innocent, taking a tone that Sango had heard Miroku use many, many times while he was pleading innocence and lying through his teeth. "I just wanted to see the look on her face!"

Sango frowned, not amused. "Of course. That was it. That makes perfect sense." She rolled her eyes heavenward as if praying, but really what went through her mind was: _Not even a day and she's wondering about that boy without his clothes on!_

* * *

The village that Inuyasha and Kagome lived near was larger than the demon slayer's village. Already Japan's capital had changed many times over the centuries, following an emperor who sometimes had power but most of the time did not. But the future lied with the villages that Kaede had once tended as a priestess.

Terraced fields and rice paddies sprawled everywhere to feed the growing population and to bring wealth to the village and its people. Most of the crops had been gathered and the fields cleared, but there were still a number of women working over them. Their robes were tied up around their legs, and their sleeves were pinned back.

Kohimu, Tisoki, and Koinu led the way through the village. The women workers in the field rose from their bent over positions, wiping their brows and squinting their eyes at their latest guests. Several of them started calling out friendly greetings immediately, waving their arms. They knew Koinu and Akisame on sight. A few of them set aside their work and hurried to get closer.

Tisoki grunted and nudged Koinu with his shoulder. "Do these ladies always come running for you, or is it just that they saw me?"

Koinu sighed, ears flattening, and steadfastly ignored Tisoki's goading. Instead he said, "Just make sure you leave them alone."

"Why?" Kohimu spoke up loudly, cutting off Tisoki who'd been about to make a reply of his own. "Are they yours, Koinu?" as he eyed his dog-eared "cousin" there was a careful gleam in his gaze, searching the other.

Koinu's cheeks flared abruptly red. "No!" he blustered, crossing his arms defensively.

"Then why can't I…" Tisoki paused, finding the perfect word and the precise hungry tone he wanted to finish with. "…_pursue them?"_

"Touch them and Inuyasha will tear a few things off." Shippo interjected brightly from behind the other three. When they turned as one to stare at him, taken aback, the kit grinned widely. "What? Koinu will tell you, that's what Inuyasha said."

"I'd like to see him try!" Tisoki announced at once, indignantly. "Kohimu and I are an excellent team. We could take him."

Koinu snorted with disgust, his face curling into a cross between a sneer and a snarl. Tisoki and Kohimu expected him to react and they stared into his face and smirked eagerly, but Koinu surprised them by stepping off the path and leaving them behind. Tisoki and Kohimu craned their necks, trying to observe what was happening as the dog eared boy greeted the women workers from the fields, smiling cordially.

"That dog." Kohimu grumbled.

Akisame and Shippo also left the slayers, moving to join Koinu and speak with the villagers.

Unlike Inuyasha, who was decidedly unfriendly most of the time and generally relied on Kagome to act as a sort of go-between and communicator—more out of laziness than of actual hostility toward the villagers—Koinu had been blessed with his mother's sunny and friendly disposition. A village that might otherwise have been unnerved by an Inuyasha look-alike came to accept him more closely as one of their own. Inuyasha's dogged (A/N: punny!) unfriendliness also kept most females away from admiring his ears. A puppy that bites the hand that feeds it soon finds itself going hungry, no matter how adorable it is. So as he'd grown, Koinu had gained a following of casual female friends. Like Inuyasha however, Koinu wasn't interested in cultivating these relationships. He learned their names and a few basic things about them, and then kept the relationship at about the acquaintance level. The girls might try for more, but Koinu wasn't interested in them—his drive was for his family and they weren't family.

In the interesting reversal inside their home, it had become Akisame that now stood off aloof and almost unfriendly, letting her brother do the talking.

"Where did you go off to now, Koinu?" one of the older girls shouted. She was leaning on her hoe and breathing roughly from physical exertion.

"We had to help the demon slayers get here. They'd get lost or forget where they were going without us." Koinu grinned and briefly glanced back toward Kohimu and Tisoki who were vanishing into the depths of the village, still making their way for Inuyasha's estate.

"Demon slayers?" a younger girl breathed, her light brown eyes wide.

Another girl that might've been her older sister, or a look-alike cousin, added: "Is there a demon coming?"

"Not as far as we know." Shippo told them, calmly.

The girls and young women sighed noticeably with relief. It had been years since their village had suffered a serious attack. The villagers had become spoiled, though Koinu and Shippo would never tell them that.

Akisame, however, would. "Heh! You're all a bunch of babies! Father keeps this place safe for you, you know!"

The girls hardly spared Akisame a glance, in fact a few frowned or threw her a glare. She unnerved them for all of her human appearance because she didn't act at all like Kagome. When she'd been younger the women had heard Kagome speak of Akisame's temperament as being uncannily like Inuyasha's, but they'd assured Kagome that it was a phase and as Akisame glided into womanhood she would leave it behind.

The years kept passing and they were beginning to doubt their own counsel.

The older girl, still putting a lot of her weight onto her hoe, spoke up once more. "Not that safe, Aki! There's been another death north of here. Some boy went for a walk on the beach at dusk and now he's gone—vanished!"

"Maybe he fuckin' drowned." Akisame muttered, unimpressed.

Koinu twisted around and made a hissing sound at his sister, keeping his voice low to hide his words from human ears. "How many times do I have to tell you that girls don't talk like that?"

Her face burned crimson at once but she bared her teeth like a dog and answered him in the same vicious whisper. "And how many times have you told me that I'm a _woman_ now, not a _girl?"_

Koinu's ears turned backward, his face curled with a cross between amusement and irritation. "Good point. _Women_ don't talk that way either."

She grinned and crossed her arms over her chest, proudly showing off the fangs that gleamed whitely in her dark mouth. "This one does."

Shippo pushed through their usual sibling bickering to focus back on the village workers and their gossip. "In the north? How far away?"

The girl with the hoe stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. "Oh, I don't know—a day's walk maybe? I'd say we hear this sort of rumor passing through once every few days. Are those slayers going to the coast?" the girl's eyebrows waggled playfully for a moment. "There were two men and a boy! What good will they be? Nothing but sacrifices to the Ningyo!"

"I'm sure they have a plan if they're going after the Ningyo." Shippo told her assuredly.

Bidding the workers goodbye, Shippo, Akisame, and Koinu marched back up to the path. Shippo lead the way, walking without effort and lightly on his tawny pawed feet. As the kit aged, his power as a youkai became steadily more apparent. In the wintertime he barely left tracks in the snow, as if he weighed as much as a songbird. He could teleport in and out of existence, leaping from place to place, for at least an hour without tiring. All of these powers were wrapped in a body that appeared as a short boy of perhaps twelve, maybe even younger than that.

Comparatively, Akisame and Koinu were clumsy. Their humanity made them slower, but they were both slightly lighter in build than Inuyasha. They would never keep up with Shippo, and never compete with his superior senses, but there was little jealousy between them. The kitsune had his powers, and the part-inuyoukai siblings had their own, occupying different niches. The kitsune was about stealth and trickery and spying. Akisame and Koinu were caught between their hanyou father and complete humanity, between animalistic sensibilities and cultured etiquette.

When they'd passed beyond the village, and away from any obvious eavesdropping villagers, Akisame bumped into her brother's side and started talking in a griping, irritable tone. "Did you _hear_ that _pervert?_"

"What are you talking about?" Koinu kept his ears alert and upright, straining for sounds ahead of them on the path. The siblings almost never walked sedately on the trail. Usually their route laid in the trees, through the forest. They would scale a hill to reach the wall around Inuyasha's estate and they would climb it.

As pups that had been a great, impressive feat. To share the excitement with her, Koinu had carried Akisame on his shoulders before she'd been tall enough or strong enough to climb trees or leap. Now she would never allow him to carry her out of pride, even in one instance when at eight years old she'd sprained her ankle and cut up her knees in a fall. Akisame had scaled the wall with Koinu trailing her worriedly, always ready to rush in and help her. In that spot, along the back of the estate where Akisame had scaled the wall with the help of several trees, there were still dull red-brown streaks on the wood where Akisame had shed her blood climbing it.

"That _hentai._" Akisame growled, dragging Koinu out of his reverie, "That Kasai. Ugh." She sneered.

Koinu fought the heat that instantly rushed over his face. His ears dropped flat. "No, didn't hear anything." He lied. At his side Akisame was still sneering, about to start cursing Kasai again, but Koinu pretended not to have noticed by changing the subject playfully. "Race you to the wall Aki!"

He leapt for the wall of trees and snagged a branch with his claws, hauling himself up like a cat. He gripped the branch with both his hands and his feet and glanced curiously back at the trail.

Akisame was watching him, her arms crossed over her chest. "Koinu! You idiot!"

"You'd better start running Aki. I'm going to beat you."

"Do I look like I'm playing?"

Koinu smirked down at her. "If you win I'll let you swear. "

"Fuck you!" Akisame blustered, her face reddening and her hands curling into fists. "I don't need your permission dammit!"

"And if I win…" Koinu started, lowering his voice cautiously, "…you have to spy on Kasai for me."

Akisame let out a sound that was almost a howl and stamped one foot. Her golden eyes glowed with a feral light. "I _will not!_ What the hell's the matter with you?"

"On your mark!" Koinu cried out, bouncing on his branch and amazingly keeping his balance expertly, more monkey than dog. "Get set!"

If Akisame had crossed her arms and ignored her brother's shouting in that moment, Koinu couldn't have forced her to keep her side of the proposed bet on the simple grounds that she hadn't acknowledged or agreed to them at all. But as Koinu shouted at her, Akisame couldn't help herself. Like a greyhound, at the hint of a race or a competition, she was unable to control herself.

Her body stance changed, she lowered herself into a crouch, ran forward, and leapt into the air. She snatched a gnarled branch that was nearly equal to Koinu's in height, just a little bit higher in the air. The extra height, and Akisame's shorter arms and legs, meant that she barely caught the branch with one hand and cried out, kicking reflexively with her feet as she tried to haul herself up. While Koinu watched her, smirking, Akisame pulled herself onto the branch and huffed at him irritably. "I hate you."

"You don't mean it, Little Sister." Koinu turned to face the forest and, through it, their home. He crouched, "On your mark…"

"Why would you want me to fuckin' spy on that, that…_thing_ anyway?" Akisame muttered, halfway talking to herself and halfway trying to slow Koinu's countdown to their race. She was still positioning herself shakily on the branch, trying to crouch in a readied stance.

"Get set." Koinu ignored Akisame's griping with the ease that came with years of experience. "…Go!"

The siblings rushed ahead, toward home.

* * *

"Sango!" Kagome hurried out of her home and onto the stepping stones of the garden outside, hobbling when her naked toes touched on the hot rocks. She collided into Sango's open arms and the two women hugged each other tightly.

Sango's children, a whole clan, milled around her, glancing around the garden. It had been a few years since they'd visited Kagome and Inuyasha's estate. Miroku and Sango's youngest boys hadn't ever visited the estate itself. Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai were the most likely to remember the estate in its true fullness and detail. But even so, between what their memories revealed and what their eyes took in there were differences. Kagome had planted fresh flowers—of a kind that Sango's clan had never seen before because they were brought from the future. From a few of the larger tree branches strange trinkets hung, swaying gently in the wind. They were filled with yellow-brown seeds. Another one, further away from the flock of teenagers, had bright red fluid inside. They couldn't know it, but these were birdfeeders and hummingbird feeders.

"Miroku didn't come with you?" Kagome asked concernedly.

"No." Sango shook her head, still smiling warmly at her friend. "He stayed with the rest of our boys."

"I'm sure you could've found someone to watch them…" Kagome started, her tone indicating some displeasure at Miroku's absence. The reason for her worry was standing behind her on the porch, his arms crossed over his chest and his white dog ears swiveling uncertainly as he took in Sango and her clan of teenagers.

Sango's gaze moved beyond Kagome, drifting to the hanyou. She shook her head and pulled Kagome into another embrace. When they parted she laughed. "We're hunting a demon that eats men. _That_ is why Miroku stayed home."

"Kagome—where the hell is Aki?" Inuyasha demanded suddenly. He jumped down from the porch, not even bothering to waste time walking in a dignified fashion down the stairs. He stood at Kagome's side as she pulled back from greeting Sango, his arms still crossed stiffly over his chest while he waited for her to answer.

"I—I don't know…" Kagome blinked, taken aback. "Sango, did Akisame and…"

Sango nodded reassuringly. "Yes. Koinu, Shippo _and_ Akisame stopped to speak with the villagers." When she saw Inuyasha bristling at her words, about to demand why she'd left Akisame in the village Sango quickly interjected into the hanyou's overprotective meddling. "She was with Koinu and Shippo, Inuyasha. I don't think you have to worry about her."

"Feh!" Inuyasha grumbled, his ears turning backward, but he made no move to rush off after his missing daughter, yet. Instead his eyes had landed on fresh prey. He stepped beyond Kagome and Sango, glaring through his slitted amber eyes at Kohimu and Tisoki.

"While you're here you're gonna _control_ yourselves!" he ranted, moving alternatively between the young men, getting in their faces slightly and watching them wince, though they tried very hard not to. Over the years of training they had often seen what this hanyou was capable of, and though they had blustered and bragged of being able to take Inuyasha on in a fight, they weren't truly that stupid. Inuyasha, in turn, wasn't _truly_ likely to harm them.

Not fatally anyway.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, frowning. Her cheeks had flamed a bright red. "_Stop yelling."_

The hanyou grunted wordlessly and backed off, apparently satisfied. His ears twisted backward in the same moment and his mood switched at once. "Koinu and Aki are home." He could identify his children by their method of entry—the wall—and by their constant arguing.

Kagome shepherded Sango and the children inside, offering hospitality to the slayers after their long journey. As she passed inside she tossed a last glare at her husband in silent warning and disapproval and, when his ears fell backward with intimidation, she left out of sight, satisfied.

Alone, Inuyasha turned immediately toward the sound of his children crossing his land and crept forward, ducking low. Akisame and Koinu were being too loud, if they'd traveled that way a youkai could have heard them from miles away and come after them, eager for a snack. The grass in the backyard was wild, long, and untrimmed. When Akisame and Koinu had been younger, Inuyasha had trained them as much as their generally limited backyard could. There was enough space that a few stands of trees were enclosed by the wall Inuyasha had constructed many years ago when he and Kagome had first chosen the spot, but the estate was small enough that it was hard to be out of earshot of a shout.

Calculating which way Koinu and Akisame would go to approach the house by the noise of their bickering, Inuyasha hid in a small, bushy pine. He pressed his body to the tree trunk, crossing his arms and moving one leg over the other to hide the red of his hakama and haori. The sounds of his children's voices grew steadily louder.

"You _cheated!"_ Akisame shouted, viciously.

"No—I didn't make you fall out of the tree! You did that all by yourself." Koinu's voice sounded smug.

"I never agreed to fucking race in the first place!"

The siblings would pass within ten feet of Inuyasha's tree. If they were observant they could've caught his scent, but as their voices grew louder it became clear to Inuyasha that they were too absorbed in their arguing. Irritation swarmed through Inuyasha, establishing itself as a heat that flushed straight up to his white ears, flattened against his skull.

"If you didn't agree, then why did you race?" Koinu countered, still smart and smug.

Akisame growled but the sound rose into a feminine whine. "I will _not_ spy on that _pervert_ for you!" her words were accompanied with the sound of flesh smacking flesh. She was hitting her brother, pounding him with her fists.

"But I won you have to—"

In that moment Inuyasha leapt out of hiding, crossing the distance between the pine tree and his children in a single bound. Koinu and Akisame cried out with shock and stumbled away in opposite directions. Akisame jumped into the air, putting distance between herself and her father while Koinu rolled to one side and instinctively pawed at the ground, seeking a rock, a stick, anything he could throw or use as a weapon…

Inuyasha ignored Akisame and rushed at his son, screeching. Koinu rolled again as he caught the flash of movement. Scent revealed that this was his father he was trying to evade. Koinu's search for a weapon stopped at once. He got to his feet. "Father…" he gasped.

"Koinu." Inuyasha growled, glaring.

Reading his father's face, seeing the bright, fierce anger, Koinu felt his heart sink. His limbs felt heavy, his face hot. He ducked his head. "I'm sorry…" he apologized partly on impulse, only partly understanding that he had committed some kind of error.

"You're acting like a pup!" Inuyasha shouted, frowning.

Blinking, Koinu recalled his argument with Akisame and felt shame burst over him all over again. He dropped to his knees and started to bow low but Inuyasha made a hissing sound that stopped him.

"Get up, Koinu." He ordered in a deep but calm growl.

Akisame stood a few feet away, shifting uncomfortably. The foul-mouthed, fearless hanyou's daughter now wore an expression that mildly resembled terror. As Inuyasha and Koinu began to walk forward, Akisame's mouth moved on the air, trying to form words. "Da—Father, I'm sorry too…"

"It's his job to protect you."Inuyasha grumbled, gesturing with his chin toward where Koinu walked with slumped shoulders at his father's side, his ears drooping pathetically.

"I don't need him to protect me!" Akisame protested, sidling up close to her father. Her motion made her resemble a beggar or a puppy pleading for attention with aggression. Her shoulder brushed Inuyasha's arm. She was still far shorter than he was, and although Inuyasha could smell the hormonal changes within his daughter that were turning her into a woman, he regarded her more often like a foolish child.

"Listen to Father, Aki." Koinu ordered, quietly. His ears had yet to rise from their dejected drooping.

Inuyasha glared at his son. "Go to your mother." He watched Koinu slink off and snorted, frowningly. Akisame bumped his side, refocusing his attention down on her again.

"Seriously! Dad…it wasn't just Koinu's fault." she whined, her lips—shaped like Kagome's rather than like Inuyasha's—were downturned and pouting.

Staring down at his daughter, Inuyasha's facial muscles quivered. His jaw clenched, his chin flickered once and his ears twitched spasmodically. Akisame was a beautiful girl, reminding him so much of Kagome when she'd first fallen through the well. Yet, unlike Kagome, Akisame was undeniably his child with her incessant swearing and aggressive nature. Did she mimic him out of affection, or was her personality a hereditary thing? Inuyasha had adopted his nature out of desperation and the need for bravado. It was a survival tactic. Akisame hadn't ever faced those same horrors and challenges, and Inuyasha would've cut himself into pieces rather than have her suffer as he had.

Reaching one arm up and over Akisame's head, Inuyasha pulled her close to his side and sighed, trying to bury the sudden surge of emotion. He stroked Akisame's long, straight black hair, the same beautiful shade that Kagome had. She fought him halfheartedly, grumbling under her breath but silenced herself when he started to speak. "Aki—Koinu has to be ready to _protect_ you _all the time._ If he wants to survive…"

"Oh come off it!" Akisame snarled and tossed his arm away from her, charging ahead and around the house, leaping one moment and then running the next.

* * *

Soup was served at dinner, a modified Ramen. Kagome was the life of the group, encouraging everyone to eat and speak of their travels, and their life in the growing demon slayer's village. Her food was barely touched she was so busy talking. Koinu sat directly at her side, trying to seem cheerful. His true mood was easily discerned, however, when he glanced at his father at the head of the table and saw the hanyou sitting sternly silent and stiff as he ate his soup, fishing through it with his chopsticks.

Akisame barely spoke. She was pinned between her father at the head of the table and her mother on her other side. It was impossible for her to leave the Ramen alone. She had a voracious appetite, but she took little joy out of the meal. Of course she failed to notice that she was being watched—not by Inuyasha—but from further down the table.

"So the two of you work as a team, together?" Kagome asked Kohimu and Tisoki as one. She was leaning forward over her swiftly cooling soup to see them at the far end of the table. There was a reason the boys were stationed there: it was as far as they could physically be from Akisame and Kagome.

Tisoki slurped on his soup while Kohimu nodded and replied to her. "Yes, Tisoki and I perform as a team. I am the archer. I distract the demon while Tisoki moves closer and wrangles it with the sickle." He spoke with intelligence and eloquence, a trait that reminded Inuyasha and Kagome alike of Miroku.

Finished with his soup for the moment, Tisoki sat up proudly and gave a broad smile. His warm brown eyes twinkled with mischief as they roved around the table, landing on Akisame for a moment unabashedly. "Did you hear him say it? Did you hear it? _I wrangle demons._"

"That's because you aren't smart enough for anything else." Kasai interjected, laughing.

"Kasai." Sango's tone was one of clear warning. "Stop it."

Kagome turned her attention toward Sango now. "Sango—you've barely eaten anything! Aren't you starving?"

Sighing and pressing her lips together, Sango shook her head. "I know what you're thinking Kagome—it's not the soup. I'm just not hungry is all."

For one of the first times that night, Inuyasha made a noise, grunting. When everyone turned to stare at him for this seemingly calculated sound, the hanyou shifted uncomfortably and growled out, "What? I ain't sayin' anything!"

Sango's expression was skeptical and uncertain. "Inuyasha…?"

"Feh!" he snapped, huffing. He looked toward Akisame and Koinu, as if seeking backup, but his children simply continued to stare back at him, perplexedly. "Dammit! It's nothing already, stop lookin' at me like that!"

Shippo, down at the opposite end of the table, rolled his green eyes heavenward. "We _know_ it's something when you make a big deal about it like that, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha grumbled incoherently for a moment and then grabbed his soup. It was empty, he'd drained it some time ago, but for the distraction, he shoved it at Kagome. "Got anymore?"

Frowningly, Kagome snatched the bowl away and got to her feet, stomping off to the kitchen to refill it. As soon as Kagome had vanished out of the room, Inuyasha jabbed one clawed finger at Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo at the end of the table. "You three—and Shippo, you too—are sleeping in the kitchen while you're here."

Masuyo, who was only thirteen, was the first to try protesting Inuyasha's pronouncement. "But—_the kitchen?_ How will Aunt Kagome cook in the day?"

"You'll pack it up during the day, kid." The hanyou answered, relentlessly. Then, as Kagome started to walk back into the room, he called to Sango, "You and Kasai will have the guestroom."

Kagome caught the wide-eyed, stunned stares that her husband was receiving from the second she reentered the room with the fresh, steaming bowl of soup. She set it in front of Inuyasha, who ignored it, and sat down with an angry frown on her face. "What did he say?"

Sango answered her, "Inuyasha is separating us by gender. He put all of my sons—_and _Shippo—in the kitchen."

Incredulously, Kagome turned to regard the hanyou. "Inuyasha—we have two bedrooms _and_ the guestroom…"

"It ain't happening, Kagome." He crossed his arms over his chest, as if to say _and that's final_.

Kagome closed her mouth, narrowed her eyes, and clenched her jaw. Without looking away from her husband, she spoke to Sango and her family. "Sango you can split up the rooms any way you like. Koinu, you'll share your room with Akisame. That should make enough room for everyone."

"Kagome!" Inuyasha growled, ears flattening. He spluttered a little with building rage, but no further understandable words came out. In his mind letting Sango and Miroku's boys anywhere near the two most important females in his life was guaranteeing _someone's_ death. Also, the distance would help him sleep better at night. He had even been considering ordering Koinu to sleep in the living room or the hallway. Koinu was sure to waken if one of Sango's boys came wandering through the house after hours, looking for Akisame…

Kagome had turned away from him and was maintaining a calm expression, steadfastly ignoring him.

"Dammit." Inuyasha cursed and rose from the table without further word, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway and the bedrooms. It was anyone's guess as to whether or not he actually stayed in one of the bedrooms. When he was angry or in a rage as he was, it was just as likely that he would sneak out through a window to sulk in a tree somewhere on the property. That was one habit, one wrinkle, that time was unable to iron out of him.

* * *

That night, when Kagome finally retreated to the bedroom she shared with Inuyasha, she found the hanyou perched in the only empty corner in the room, next to the window. The screen was open, letting moonlight peek in faintly from outside. A sweet breeze also poured in. It was pleasant and romantic—or it would've been if Kagome hadn't been so angry with him for his obsessive paranoia that she could've yanked on his ears.

The sleeping arrangement in the other bedrooms had sorted itself out nicely. The large guestroom was given to Sango and Kasai to share. Meanwhile the smallest room, which had originally been Akisame's, became the boy's room with Masuyo, Kohimu, and Tisoki sharing it. The last room was Koinu's and he willingly shared it with Akisame and Shippo.

Now Kagome faced her husband's irritable, luminescent golden eyes and sighed with exasperation. "Inuyasha, how can you be so—" he interrupted her tirade at once.

"I'm going to fuckin' stay up all night and guard her, Kagome."

Kagome's hands curled into fists. "Inuyasha!" she fought the desire to shout the age-long punishing word at him: _Sit!_ The hanyou appeared to sense it, he cringed, his white ears flattened and quivered slightly. Kagome calmed herself with a few deep breaths and, gradually, in the silence that Inuyasha allowed her next, she tried to bury herself in Inuyasha's mind and world, tried to sympathize with him. She knew that he despised the fact that Akisame was growing up, and he deeply distrusted Sango's sons. It was in his nature to be obsessively protective, exactly as a guard dog should be. When they'd searched for Shards all those years ago he'd displayed the traits even then, rarely leaving her unattended and unwatched. The obsessive worry over those that mattered to him—_family­­—_was a constant factor in every aspect of his behavior. It was probably encoded straight into his genetics.

This tiny exercise of stepping out of her shoes and into her husband's had saved her from many nasty fights with him. Being half inuyoukai he was truly a different creature, not quite human. She removed the anger and irritation that had built up inside her, scooping it away until she could actually feel amusement at the situation. Was Sesshomaru just as bad? Had their father been the same way? Would she start to see it in Koinu and Akisame as well?

She let loose a little smile and Inuyasha blinked in his corner, taken aback. "Kagome?" he asked, very quietly.

She sighed, letting her shoulders sag. "I know you're worried about Akisame, Inuyasha, but is it really worth being rude to Sango and Miroku's _children?_ They're our closest friends! Maybe you should try getting to know their sons first before you banish them. How about it?"

The hanyou squirmed nervously; his ears swiveled to and fro. "I _saw_ them looking at Aki tonight, Kagome!"

"They're boys! Let them look!" Kagome gestured helplessly. "You can't tell me _you_ didn't look when you were their age…"

It was dark in the room but Kagome knew by the way her husband fidgeted that he was blushing. "But—Aki! This is _Akisame_ Kagome!"

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry Inuyasha but Akisame is growing up." She paused, allowing herself to feel a mild spurt of pain at that admission. Inuyasha cringed, his eyes closing as he shook his head vehemently, as if by denying it he could change reality. "That does happen…"

Inuyasha gave a small, pathetic grunt, giving in apparently. "Feh." There was silence for a time as Kagome stepped forward and started to undress, gathering her pajamas. She felt Inuyasha's eyes on her as she moved, but with their years of marriage she wasn't intimidated or embarrassed as she stripped into her underwear and knelt to dig through a drawer, looking for her pajamas.

Unexpectedly, from behind her, Kagome heard Inuyasha announce, "Sango's pregnant."

"What?" Kagome twisted around to stare at him through the blackness, gawking.

"That's why she wasn't eating." Inuyasha informed her, his tone taking on a sort of grumbling growl.

Shock had stopped Kagome from getting ready for bed. She stared off into the nothingness of the dark. "Why would she come to exterminate this demon when she's…"

"Feh!" Inuyasha interrupted her, giving her the answer right away. "She's barely pregnant. She's only just feeling it now!"

"Why didn't you tell her tonight?" Kagome demanded, realizing abruptly why Inuyasha had refused to explain himself earlier in the evening.

"Not my job." The hanyou replied. "She'll figure it out. I respected her privacy."

Kagome chuckled. "When did that start? You used to tell her the sex of the babies when you knew she didn't want to know."

He crossed his arms irritably. "Feh! I don't have to talk to you."

"Hah!" Kagome laughed, "Suite yourself." She found her night robe and started to slip out of her underwear. "I suppose I don't have to feed you either."

His reply was immediate, but his tone playful. "Like hell!"

* * *

And that's it until next time folks. Just thougt I'd drop you this little update to make sure you knew I wasn't dead. 


	6. A Woman's Sword

A/N: I recently read "The Red Tent" which is the account of Dinah, the only recorded daughter of Jacob from the Bible. Jacob had four "wives," and upwards of twelve sons. If he can have that many sons with only one daughter born in the midst of it, I figure Miroku and Sango can have a similar track record. Another note I'd like to make is that I do know a lot about whales and dolphins but I am not entirely sure which species make their homes around Japan because it just so happens when I search those two words together on the Internet: "Japan" and "Whale" I get rabid anti-whaling websites and while I do disagree with killing whales, I would like to research without the political, emotional slant, just to know what species there are. So as of right now I'm just going to pick a toothed whale species that I know has a wide range and be done with it. I would, however, like to disclaimer myself as saying I adore whales, I'd love to go whale watching, I've peted a dolphin before, I could stare for hours at them, but as a writer I'm exploiting the national view of whales/dolphins held by the Japanese to add cultural depth to the story. Fishing and seafood—all kinds of it—are big in the culture, so I'm going with it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Last Chapter: Kasai asked Akisame something very naughty about Koinu. The slayers reached Kaede's village. The villagers told Shippo and Koinu about the attack on the coast and a missing boy. On their own Koinu and Aki raced home on a bet, Koinu won. Inuyasha was grouchy with Koinu, feeling that he hadn't been on top of protecting Aki. After causing trouble at dinner, Inuyasha informed Kagome that Sango is pregnant, just barely. He can tell before she can by using his nose.

* * *

**A Woman's Sword**

Early the following morning after their arrival, Sango gathered her children up and out of bed bright and early. They settled around Inuyasha's dining table and began to discuss the assignment.

"This morning," Sango began smoothly, "we will be traveling to a coastal province. There's a samurai warlord there who's promised your father payment for our services. While we're there I want you all to be on your best behavior." She searched over her children's faces, one by one, landing carefully on each, before continuing. "He will tell us where the attacks occur so that we know where to look. And…" she focused on Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo, "He will tell us if we could take any of you along or not."

"Mom—you don't really think you and Kasai could kill a _whale_ youkai all alone, do you?" Masuyo asked worriedly.

"Well," Sango smiled at him reassuringly, "I think I can come up with a few other options first. And we could always ask Aunt Kagome and Akisame to help us."

Masuyo scowled. "But Uncle Inuyasha wouldn't…"

Kasai interrupted him brightly, "Inuyasha and Koinu aren't _men_, Mom. They could come with us too; wouldn't that make Inuyasha more comfortable…?"

Sango paused, reluctantly considering her daughter's proposal. Slowly she shook her head. "I'm afraid until we know more we won't be asking anyone else to be coming with us."

Cautiously, Masuyo spoke up once more. "I'm not a man yet, Mom…"

Kohimu rolled his eyes. "You don't get it, kid…"

"Don't call me that!" Masuyo snapped, glaring at his older brother.

"Stop it." Sango ordered them sternly. "You can't pick at him like that, Kohimu. You're grown now, _act_ like it." When all of the boys stared back at her sedately, Sango nodded, satisfied. "Get some water ready, Kasai. We're leaving now."

"Shouldn't we tell Inuyasha?" Tisoki asked, motioning back toward the hallway and the bedrooms beyond. The sun was barely rising outside; Inuyasha's household seemed silent and unmoving with sleep.

Sango shook her head. "I'm sure he's already aware of what's happening." She paused before lowering her voice into a faint whisper. "The samurai lord would never tolerate a hanyou in his court."

Tisoki's eyes widened in realization, but even as Sango turned away, he switched gears, asking, "Could we bring Akisame then?"

His mother halted, twisting her neck around to glare at her second born son. She shook her head. "Don't even _think_ it, Tisoki."

"But she looks—"

Kohimu elbowed his brother, making him cough. "Just shut up if you want to live."

* * *

From the thinner branches at the top of a tree just beyond the wall surrounding Inuyasha's estate, Koinu watched Sango, her multitude of sons, and Kasai pass quietly by, heading for Kaede's village and then from there the coast. To keep from bowing the thin branches at the top of his tree, Koinu spread his body out over several branches. His legs were spread-eagle while his arms clung to the thicker center trunk. 

Before he'd gone to bed the night before Inuyasha had come to him quietly, discreetly carrying a sword. It was not the famed Tetsusaiga, which he rarely parted with except to try training Koinu and Akisame, but instead a different family sword that a very odd houseguest had imparted to them about ten years ago. When Koinu had first held the sword himself he'd been a small boy, awed by the power he could feel hiding in the steel of the blade. It was heavy in those days too.

Now when Inuyasha passed him the sheathed blade—using a cloth to cover his hands as if the blade would burn him and, in fact, it would—Koinu realized it was a small blade, meant for a woman or a boy. He'd fought the burning sensation that spread viciously over his cheeks and the instinctual frown, but he couldn't force his ears to stay upright.

"Koinu—Sango and the others are leaving tomorrow morning. I want you to join up with them and keep them safe, okay?" it had been dark in the hall where they stood, and for that Koinu was grateful as Inuyasha extended the sword and he accepted it gingerly, bowing a little.

"You remember this one?" Inuyasha grunted, eyeing his son critically.

Koinu nodded. If he couldn't impress his father with brawn he would certainly reveal the smarts that Kagome had given him. "It's _Izoukago._ Lady Rin's sword." The sword hadn't been changed or re-forged to be handled by an adult yet, it was still a short sword, a boy's sword or a woman's sword.

Although, technically, Koinu was not yet considered a man in human years, he could wield Tetsusaiga, which in his mind qualified him as a man. Apparently, Inuyasha disagreed.

Inuyasha grinned, his fangs glinting in the lowlight. "Don't look so sour, Koinu!" he gestured at the sword. "I can't even touch the damned thing and you know I gotta stay here and watch over your mother and Aki…"

Koinu nodded again and thanked Inuyasha. They parted stiffly, or at least that was how Koinu interpreted it. Dimly, Koinu understood that his father didn't consider him grown out of boyhood yet, but he still considered Koinu powerful enough to be trusted to protect Sango, her sons, and Kasai. It was an insult and a compliment all rolled into one.

So it was that Koinu stayed perched atop the tree, dressed in greens and browns to blend in with the forest, watching as Sango led her troop of young slayers further away. When they had passed outside of his sight, Koinu dropped from the tree and ran after them, cutting through the forest to beat them to Kaede's village.

The dawning light woke the sleeping village. Trade commenced swiftly. Bags of rice were exchanged for wood for building or for fruits, meat, and spices. Rice was even exchanged for labor, or specialized services like blacksmithing, carpentry, and sewing. (A/N: I'm fairly sure that at least up to a point the economy was based almost entirely on rice trade, but I could be completely wrong. Maybe they traded everything, I have no idea, but I thought I read somewhere that it was strongly based on rice.)

While he waited for Sango and her family to arrive, Koinu stopped at a meat vendor. The man was selling squid, fish, clams, crabs, and even whale meat. The vendor leveled squinted eyes at Koinu, filled with suspicion. He was a traveler from the coast, carting his seafood through various village markets. This village was one he frequented from time to time, but not enough to have become accustomed to odd patrons like Koinu, Inuyasha, or Akisame.

"Demon." The man grunted, sneering. He was tense, leaning back as if frightened that Koinu might strike at him. His face had bleached mostly white.

Reaching into his shirt, Koinu dug out the pouch of small coins he carried around his neck and gestured with one clawed hand at the whale meat. "Is that really whale meat?"

The man blinked and swayed slightly on his feet. For a moment his eyes rounded widely as he began to realize that the creature before him was behaving the same as any normal customer. It took a while for his instinctual fear and dislike to wear thin with the prospect of making money. "Yep." He grunted in answer.

"Can you tell me about whales, sir?" Koinu addressed the man politely, as if speaking to an elder or a man of high status. He'd found that speaking in such a way—a method that Inuyasha hadn't ever tried—often diffused fear and hate. "I've never seen one before."

The man made a gruff noise in his throat. "They're big fish. Are you going to buy or not?" he cocked his head to one side, his alarm abruptly gone, replaced now with a disgusted curiosity. Koinu watched the vendor's eyes rove over his fair, white-silver hair and the white dog ears. He hadn't noticed Koinu's blue eyes as unusual just yet.

By scent Koinu knew that the whale meat was foreign to him, so it could be real, and it was filled with fat. It was a rich meat, a fattening meat. Koinu thought of his father shouting, rushing into battle, the leanness of muscle…

"On second thought I'll take the fish." Koinu told the man and dug into his pouch for a few coins. "Is that enough?"

The vendor took what Koinu offered without quibbling over a price and passed him a small slab of fish. Koinu moved through the marketplace while chewing on it and searching for Sango and her family. (A/N the Japanese do continue to eat whale meat. Although I don't like it, like much of Western culture, it would be among seafood vendors here, and since this story concerns a "whale youkai" or a "mermaid" I felt it appropriate to include it.)

He spotted Masuyo first. The boy was trading a small knife carved of bone for some rather unripe fruit. The vendor smirked as he passed the young teenager green fruits and tiny pickles. Before Masuyo hurried off, Koinu stepped forward and took hold of the boy's shoulders. The boy gasped and twisted around, trying to fight what he thought was a stranger's hold, but when Koinu spoke over and above his head he fell still, his mouth hanging open.

"Koinu?" he called, but Koinu was already engaged with the vendor.

"Excuse me sir—the bone that this boy exchanged with you is worth far more than what you've given him in return."

The dealer stared silently at Koinu for a long moment, his face twitching. At last he sighed and rolled his eyes. "Damn you, Koinu." He grumbled and began digging through his produce, picking out finer fruits and vegetables to give to Masuyo.

Masuyo accepted the exchange without a hint of bitterness, in fact he grinned proudly as if he'd been the one to negotiate the much more equivalent deal. As he and Koinu walked away, Masuyo bit into his first pickle and puckered his lips at the taste. He spoke around the pickle, spitting the juices out clumsily with each consonant. "You knew that guy?"

"Yeah, he's a dirty rotten cheat." Koinu answered, turning his head in both directions, looking for Sango or one of Masuyo's siblings. "Where are the others, Masuyo?"

"Don't know." The boy answered, happily biting into his pickle again. "Mom said she wasn't hungry."

Koinu wrinkled his nose at the stink of the pickle and flicked his ears about, trying to pick out the voices of his "cousins." Tisoki and Kohimu weren't likely to split apart. They had been joined at the hip like twins their whole lives. It seemed likely to Koinu that they'd get breakfast as one unit the same way they fought demons together, ate dinner together, scoped out women together, and walked together.

Then one of the group made herself known by finding _him._

A tight, strong pair of fingers grasped Koinu's ear from behind and tugged on it. Shouting at the unexpected assault on a most delicate organ, Koinu whipped around and away, searching for his assailant while in the same moment freeing himself from her. Kasai stood a few feet away, grinning broadly.

"Hi, Son of Dog." She waved at him innocently.

Koinu frowned deeply at her. "Where's Aunt Sango? And where were _you?_" He gestured toward Masuyo who was now biting into an unripe plum. "You left him to get swindled by Mr. Miyazi."

Kasai blinked and lifted her hands in a defensive motion. "Masuyo is thirteen! I thought he could get breakfast all right on his own."

"Yeah! I can too!" Masuyo shouted, smacking on his plum.

Koinu's ears flattened against his long hair. "Where's Aunt Sango?" he repeated.

"Mother isn't feeling well." Kasai sighed, her expression souring. "Kohimu and Tisoki left to talk to some cheap farm girl." She waved one hand dismissively presumably in the direction she'd last seen her older brothers. "I went looking for Masuyo."

"Yeah, right." Koinu shot back at her, irritably. Shepherding Masuyo with one arm, Koinu started to lead the boy off. "We're going to go looking for your mother and those loony brothers of yours."

Masuyo followed without hesitation, his free will distracted by the fruits and vegetables he was carrying. "Okay." He wiped his mouth with one hand and grimaced at the sticky juices.

Kasai's footsteps mirrored their progress; Koinu sensed her brooding just at the edges of his peripheral vision. Fearful of being groped in one way or another, he kept his white ears flattened on his head.

"Why are you even here, Koinu?" Kasai demanded.

"To keep you guys safe."

"You can't come." Kasai told him in a teasing lilt, "This youkai _eats_ men—_and boys._"

Koinu pursed his lips into a tight line and steadfastly ignored her. Why was it that everything in his life conspired to remind him of his unending status as a _boy?_

* * *

"You sent Koinu off with the demon slayers?" Kagome asked, searching her husband's face with open surprise in her wide brown eyes. 

"Yeah." Inuyasha grunted, shrugging carelessly. "I gave him _Izoukago._"

"You didn't give him the Tetsusaiga?" Kagome asked, eyebrows jerking up into her forehead. Her hands moved nervously in her lap, imagining the pressure Koinu would feel with such a charge—protect Sango and her family with a sword meant for a _boy_.

The little family was seated around the dining table, picking through bowls of noodles and vegetables for breakfast. Shippo and Akisame were seated on one side, Inuyasha and Kagome on the other. There was a spot directly opposite Akisame and at Kagome's side, where Koinu would've been seated if he were present.

"Nope, didn't give him the Tetsusaiga." Inuyasha replied blandly while lifting his bowl of noodles to slurp out of it.

Shippo cocked his head to one side, his green eyes keen that morning and slightly amused. "Why not, Inuyasha?"

The hanyou swallowed his noodles and set the bowl on the table indelicately. For a moment it appeared as though he would burp to compliment Kagome's cooking as well as his own uncouth manners, but the urge must've left him because he swallowed at last and answered Shippo, "Because he can't handle it!"

Kagome frowned into her bowl of noodles, shaking her head silently. She blinked hard, trying to fight a rush of sympathetic pain and worry for her son. Koinu truly was _her_ son. He wore Inuyasha's appearance and would do so until the day he died, but his soul was _hers,_ his heart and his behavior were _hers._ If Koinu had been born a girl, Inuyasha would think of him differently, treat him differently. Koinu would be as spoiled as Akisame, he would be unhurried, left alone to grow at his own pace. As it was, however, Inuyasha had such high expectations that Koinu could do nothing but fail them.

There was only a second of silence after Inuyasha's unfair declaration before Akisame snorted loudly, leveling a challenging gaze at her father. "You know that isn't true, Dad! Koinu _can_ handle the Tetsusaiga!"

Inuyasha watched his daughter blandly, though his mouth curved into a smirk as she spoke. "Koinu can't do it justice. He gets _Izoukago._ Quit barking about it, Aki."

"But you didn't change it! You insulted Koinu!" Akisame leaned in closer, the anger in her words making her curl her lip to expose her canines. "You gave him a _fucking _woman's sword!"

"Akisame." Kagome sighed, tiredly. "Please—don't say that word! It isn't proper for young women to—"

"Yeah and I ain't a _young woman, _Mom." Akisame tossed back, grumblingly. She glared back at Inuyasha and added, "Koinu's the proper one. He should've been the girl!"

"Akisame!" Kagome hissed, "Don't say such things!" It was one thing for her to muse about it privately, quite another to say it aloud. Aloud it became an insult.

Mother and daughter stared at one another for a moment. Akisame sat up proudly, her chest stuck out as if she were posturing for a fight while Kagome's face was bright red and her eyes moist and tight at the corners. It was the pain that Akisame saw in her mother's face that made her cave. Akisame's shoulders sagged and she let out a long puff of air.

"Sorry, Mom."

"It's all right." Kagome told her, her expression softening as the tension left her body.

"You should've sent me along, Inuyasha." Shippo interjected, green eyes glowing with amusement. "Double the insult then, don't you think?"

"Shut up, Shippo!" Inuyasha snarled, ears flattening. The kitsune's sarcasm hadn't been missed by the hanyou or anyone else at the table. "I didn't do it to insult him!"

"No?" Shippo asked, smirking. "It sure sounds to me like you did!"

"I couldn't give Koinu the Tetsusaiga!" Inuyasha shouted, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. "I need it to protect all of you!"

At once Akisame frowned, "I don't need you to protect me anymore, Dad! You should've sent _me_ with Koinu and not given him any sword! That way no one is offended."

"Feh! All seven hells would freeze over first, Aki. You're staying right here," he poked the table with his clawed finger to emphasize the words, "Right where I can keep those _perverts_ away from you!"

Kagome cleared her throat. "Inuyasha."

Catching the note of warning in her voice, Inuyasha's ears flicked backward and briefly a sheepish look crossed his face. "I sent Koinu and that's final!"

"Why send him at all though?" Shippo demanded, serious now at last. "Sango and the others are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves."

Now Inuyasha's face blazed a brilliant red. "I uh…Shippo you've got a nose dammit! I _know_ you smelled it!"

Shippo blinked and pulled back, as if Inuyasha's words had slapped him across the face. "Oh. _That's _why."

Akisame watched Shippo's reaction, her father's red face, and then took in Kagome's closed lipped silence and growled. "Will someone fill me in, please?"

Kagome and Inuyasha spoke in the same moment to answer her:

"Sango's pregnant."

"You don't need to know."

Akisame's mouth fell open and she realized with sudden clarity just why Inuyasha had felt Sango and company required more protection. "That's why you sent Koinu!" a moment later she stumbled upon another realization. The odd scent she'd noticed Sango having, a change in her hormones that her nose only faintly picked up, was the identifying scent of pregnancy. How many times had she run across it before in village women without knowing? New schemes and plans began to rise around this newfound ability. Akisame could charge for her services as a pregnancy test! She could make _money_ from this ability…!

Inuyasha and Kagome had started to bicker.

"Why did you tell her that, Kagome?" Inuyasha yelled, "She's too young to know that shit!"

"Inuyasha, she's thirteen! She's the same age as girls that are getting married now in the village! She's old enough and I'm sure she already knows as much as you did at the same age, probably more." With a huff Kagome picked up as many bowls as she could and walked out of the room into the kitchen. Inuyasha's angry eyes followed her there, narrowed and squinted with anger.

Shippo rolled his eyes. "Some things never change."

* * *

Miles away from the demon slayer's village, and even miles away from Inuyasha and Kagome's estate, Sango found herself on the verge of a breakdown. A day and a half's journey brought the group of slayers to the grounds of a small castle fortress. It was built on a cliff top with three of its sides guarded by a sheer drop to the rocky waters below and the last side covered by a massive protective wall and gate. The little town and castle closed in behind its walls was called Gakemachi. The humans that inhabited it were a small clan of warriors by the name of Kishokachi. 

By the time their odd traveling family reached Gakemachi it was already late in the afternoon. The Kishokachi wouldn't see them for another day and Sango found herself biting her nails distractedly. The worst sin that a slayer could make during a job was to lose her head to another subject. A good, proper demon slayer, as she'd always instructed her sons and Kasai, was able to forget that there was anything else in the wide world except her job, the task of eradication at hand.

Unfortunately Sango at times had trouble with her own teachings. For about a week Sango had begun to suspect that she was pregnant. Her energy was nonexistent, as was her appetite, and on top of that so was her period. With the years and years of pregnancies and births under her belt, Sango knew even before her symptoms started to begin that she _might_ be pregnant. It was a heaviness inside her belly, thick and tremulous.

Now she was almost certain that she was pregnant. That heaviness had arrived and crouched inside her womb happily, and her period was nowhere to be seen. How many children could she survive having? How many seeds could Miroku plant inside her? She'd hoped that she'd gone beyond the age for readily bearing children because in the six years since Koudo was born, her last son, Sango had had three miscarriages. A child would take root inside of her, grow steadily for a few months until her belly rounded noticeably, and then the labor pangs would start and the baby would be lost. Two of the miscarried babies had been girls, or so Sango believed.

The miscarriages were difficult ordeals for Sango, though with each new one she grew slightly more callous to the loss. There was no telling whether or not the latest life within her would stay until it was ready to be truly born, or if it would shed its body and send its weightless soul back into the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

What she did know was that she didn't want to be pregnant on the job and on the road.

She wondered if Koinu had been sent for just such a reason. Sango had no doubt that Inuyasha had scented her pregnancy before she'd been certain of it. It was probably a sure bet that Koinu knew about it as well.

Sango led their bizarre troupe to an inn inside the walled town of Gakemachi and paid for their stay with a mixture of coins and weapons carved from wood or youkai bones. The innkeeper was generous and pleased to see them—even Koinu who looked decidedly not-human. Although Sango had paid him handsomely, the innkeeper offered only one room and the meal that was provided was poorly cooked. Even Koinu with his hardened part-inuyoukai stomach didn't finish the meal completely.

Before retiring to bed, Sango took up the challenge of mending her children's armor and body suits. Like many of their tools and weapons, demon slayers often used slain youkai skins to make their body suits. Sango had been taught to make bodysuits from any kind of youkai hide. She could scale a reptilian youkai and use its leather, or shave the fur from a mammalian skin. The leather was flexible and supple; it protected the skin from airborne miasmas and poisons. If there was money for it, Sango might line the bodysuits with silk, inside and out to make them better looking and more comfortable. The preferred type of leather for a bodysuit was from a shark or a stingray. Over the armor pieces Sango dyed fabrics and sewed them over the metal and into the suit, or she painted the colors on. In a battle the distinguishing colors could save lives.

Kasai joined her at the task, though she wasn't happy about it. Kasai was short tempered with the needles. Her fingers were soft and unused to long hours of needlework. Sango prodded her onward sternly, letting her own foul mood show through. The heaviness inside her womb haunted her.

The boys—well; some of them were technically men—talked for a time seriously of youkai. Kohimu and Tisoki took up their carving knives and went to work on a few small bear youkai bones. It was Kohimu and Tisoki's work with carving that paid for many of the group's luxuries. Kohimu and Tisoki eventually lost interest in seriousness and started picking on Koinu. Masuyo stayed silent throughout most of it. The younger boy was more interested in learning the art of carving. Kohimu and Tisoki were tutoring him gradually. Tisoki lent him a throwing knife and a block of wood. Masuyo practiced with the knife, running it over the wood incessantly. When he'd mastered wood blocks he'd begin with bone to understand the differences in the way it cleaved and broke under the pressure of a knife.

Koinu had never learned this art. Though he was almost three years older than Masuyo he handled the throwing knife and wood block like a clumsy child. Koinu had gifted, dexterous fingers with a brush. Kagome had encouraged artistry in her son as well as reading and writing in Japanese and English. Koinu could write the calligraphy of men's _and_ women's kanji. But with the knife Koinu was as utterly clueless as any beginner.

When all three of the slayer boys found Koinu's ignorance and inability hilarious, Koinu flew to defend himself. "Father doesn't know how to carve either! It's not really that important."

"I bet Inuyasha could still carve better than you, Koinu." Tisoki taunted, grinningly. Tisoki was gawkier than his brothers and when he was overly amused his smile made his face look too rounded for his body.

Koinu shook his head insistently. "Father is a swordsman not a carver."

Kohimu, the cruelest of Sango and Miroku's children as well as the oldest, pinned Koinu with a quick, stabbing remark. "Too bad you aren't."

Koinu's ears flattened firmly against his hair, he scowled and tried to stop the instant heat that covered his face. It was bad enough knowing that he'd let his own father down—worse still yet to know that others around him knew of his failures. "That's not true!" he spluttered.

"He didn't give you Tetsusaiga, did he? He gave you some woman's sword." Kohimu baited, his brown eyes smug and confident. Kohimu was a handsome man now, a complete man of proper marriageable age. His dark hair was long but tied back tightly in one flowing strand. "He probably sent you with us just to get you out of the house."

Tisoki frowned now. "Hey Kohimu—that's not even fair." Sympathetically he glanced back to Koinu and shook his head apologetically. "Kohimu is an ass sometimes…"

Koinu was silent, his jaw clenched tightly and his ears hadn't risen from their flattened position. Slowly he set down the throwing knife and the wood block he'd borrowed from Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo and rose to his feet stiffly.

"Where are you going, Koinu?" Masuyo asked him when he started to walk away. The thirteen year olds hands were still wrapped around his own carving knife and block of wood. A shape was starting to form out of it, a long narrow thing that might become a chopstick.

"He's going to mope." Kohimu answered the younger boy, smirking. In Kohimu's hands there was a shard of bone that had been stained black. When it was finished he would have Sango or Kasai paint kanji characters on it, a sutra or a Buddhist chant. It would've been enough to pay for two rooms in an inn if it were completed.

Koinu knelt near Sango across the room and, without looking at her directly, asked if he could leave for some air.

"Is Kohimu being cruel?" Sango asked him without answering his question. "You should ignore him Koinu, whatever he says."

"Aunt Sango I promise I won't walk very far. Please, will you let me leave for some air?"

"There's air in here Koinu." Sango sighed. If anyone needed air it was _her_, but she couldn't leave her sons or Kasai. If she did they'd bicker all night and forget to sleep completely. The boys might cut each other rough-housing. Kasai would abandon her needlework and harass Kohimu or Koinu. Or worse still Kasai might slip out and ogle men. That would only succeed in getting her raped. Letting Koinu leave was irresponsible as well—if Koinu ran into a mob of superstitious, youkai-hating villagers there would be a great deal of trouble. It was even possible that Koinu could be injured or killed in such a brawl. Sango hadn't seen the boy perform in battle recently, but what she had seen hadn't been overly impressive. It just wouldn't do for her to be the adult that was responsible for Koinu's death.

And if Koinu left the room, Kasai would want to follow him. Sango could already sense that desire flowing from her daughter in silent waves.

But this _was_ Inuyasha's son and that was how Inuyasha had chosen to deal with social problems when he was overwhelmed with them—walk away. Aloofness was the answer, though Koinu generally didn't show this trait, even so it didn't surprise Sango now.

Taking in Koinu's stiff shoulders and back, Sango sighed again and turned back to her needlework. "Go ahead Koinu. But be careful and don't be gone too long. Your father would skin me alive if something happened to you…" she pursed her lips tightly as she refocused her hands on the fabrics in her lap.

Koinu thanked her and vanished out the door.

Thirty minutes later, Kasai stretched and casually tried to ask Sango if she could leave to go to the latrine and take a bath. Sango's answer was swift, "Only if you take Masuyo with you."

"What?" Kasai gaped at her mother, uncomprehendingly. "To the _latrine?"_

"As an escort, Kasai." Sango hadn't looked up from her sewing.

"Never mind then." Kasai grumbled, angrily stabbing her needle back into the leather fabric. Apparently she hadn't had to use the latrine very badly after all.

An hour later Sango forced all of her children to douse the lights and she sent Masuyo—the most trustworthy of her boys—after the maids to lay down the sleeping mats and clear away any remnants of their pitiful meal. On one side of the room four mats were laid out for the boys, on the other side one large mat was spread for Sango and Kasai to share.

Though she was exhausted, Sango stayed awake for an hour after the lights were doused. She sat in the middle of the room, listening and waiting. Koinu hadn't come back and because Kagome wasn't there to worry over him, Sango took it upon herself to consider going out after the missing boy. How odd that he was so like Inuyasha in appearance that, except for his differently colored hakama and haori and the way he preferred to tie his thick, wild hair back, she caught herself stumbling in time. For a moment at dinner she would be young and childless again, husbandless, family-less. Kasai would become Kagome sitting at her side for a second, and Tisoki an odd replacement for Miroku…

Then she would be jolted out of such strange time traveling reveries when she felt the pressure in her womb or the churning of her irritable stomach. She would remember that she'd given birth to six babies that had lived and others that hadn't. She wasn't the young girl that had sat beside Kagome, now she was the mother, the "aunt."

The fatigue in her body weighted her limbs and Sango's head fell forward as her mind roamed through her many complex memories. There was the first time Miroku had touched her with her consent, the very first time she had seen him naked and aroused, the expression on his face when Kohimu was born and he'd seen his first son, held him in his arms. The joy in his smile and voice as he'd praised her for bearing such a gift from heaven, his admiration for her, ever ongoing. She recalled the way Miroku had stared at Kohimu's hands, turning them over to stare at the perfect lines on the palms.

"The curse is really gone." He'd whispered, "It's really gone!"

Sleep dragged her into its depths while she was still sitting upright. Slowly Sango sagged forward and laid on her side, passing out with her exhaustion completely.

A/N: I looked up one-quarter as in one fourth, and found that it was "Shibun." So does that mean I can call Koinu and Akisame, "Shibunyou"? Food for thought.

Next time...

_"You sounded like your father there again. But I'm disappointed! I didn't know Son of Dog could play rough. I didn't know Son of Dog wouldn't fight like a man." She taunted him and, with her mouth open, lips slightly parted, Koinu could see her tongue, wriggling happily in its moist den. _

_Koinu's ears were pinned tightly against his head. He took a step back from Kasai, as if genuinely threatened. "Real men don't fight with women."_

_She closed her eyes. "Pretend I'm not a woman then. Maybe I won't win if you do that."_


	7. Son of Dog, Daughter of Man

A/N: People can smoke in my apartment complex. I HATE IT!!! Anyway, I think I need to put a **Perversion**warning on this one.

Disclaimer: I own Koinu's character, Kasai, Kohimu, Tisoki, Masuyo, and Akisame. Everyone else is not mine. It could even be argued that I don't own the kids because of who's kids they are so I'll shut up on that one too.

Last Chapter: Sango, her sons, and Kasai left for Gakemachi, to see the samurai lords the Kishokachi. Inuyasha sent Koinu with them and he sent a boy's sword, Izoukago with him, insulting Koinu in a roundabout way. Koinu is supposed to help protect Sango who's just now realized that she's pregnant for the hundredth time. Kohimu was cruel to Koinu, taunting him about Inuyasha's choice of swords to send with Koinu. Koinu left the room and didn't come back before Sango put her massive brood to bed and then passed out herself. Once her watchful eye is no longer on guard…

* * *

**Son of Dog, Daughter of Man**

The silence in the room was complete when sleep took Sango. Her sons in one corner were sleeping soundly, except for Tisoki who was wheezing through a slightly stuffy nose. On the female side of the room Kasai was lying motionless on the sleeping mat she was supposed to share with her mother…but her eyes were propped open, watching her mother's shadow where it had been sitting on the wall, projected there by the milky moonlight that crept through the screens on the far side of the room.

When Sango's shadow sagged into sleep, Kasai sat up and tiptoed across the room to the sliding door. Doing so meant she had to boldly step over her mother's prone, sleeping body. That wasn't a problem however; Kasai had been both blessed and cursed with Miroku's daring. From directly beside the door, Kasai grasped her short sword, Burikko, and slipped out into the milky moonlight and the warmth of the summer night beyond.

Koinu hadn't gone far from the room. Kasai found him at the end of the walkway, slumped against the wall. He was positioned so that he could watch the late night travelers passing through the streets of Gakemachi with his wide, keen blue eyes. He was bathed in the moonlight, which made his white ears and hair glow luminescently. The sword that Inuyasha had given him—the "woman's sword" as her brothers had called it—was sitting at his side, untied from his belt.

As Kasai stepped forward Koinu's ears twisted backward, listening to her approach. She didn't miss the way his body stiffened up, anticipating someone's approach. Did he know it was her?

He answered her silent question a second later when he sighed and mumbled her name almost absently. "Kasai…"

At first she wasn't certain that he was speaking to her, perhaps he was just saying her name aloud. But that thought was wiped away when she noted that his ears had stayed back turned and focused on her. She took the last few steps forward and knelt at his side. One hand moved out, reaching for the sword at Koiunu's side and grasping it firmly. As she sat she unsheathed the blade and concentrated on the kanji, trying to read it in the silvered light of the moon.

"Izoukago huh?" she asked, leaning forward to peer into Koinu's face. He wore a pensive expression, a little wrinkle had formed vertically between his eyebrows, a crease made with emotion and thought. His lips and jaw were tight. The emotion he'd displayed when he'd knelt in front of Sango more than an hour ago after fighting with her brothers apparently had yet to diminish.

Koinu didn't look at her; his blue eyes were pointed straight ahead and narrowed slightly with the inner anguish he was suffering. "Kohimu is right about me." he rubbed his face with one hand and sniffled, perhaps fighting tears though Kasai didn't see any in his eyes when he pulled his hand away from his face. When he spoke again he broke with his usual formality and used a term of affection for Inuyasha rather than one of firm respect.

"I've let Dad down." He shook his head and his ears drooped pathetically. "It's like I'm not his son at all."

Kasai couldn't stop herself from grinning. "Well it's not like there are too many hanyou out there that could be your father, right? So you know you must be Inuyasha's son, right? I mean who else…?" she laughed at the very idea of it but cut herself off abruptly when she saw that Koinu's face had twisted into a deeper, angrier expression.

"That's not funny, Kasai."

"Oh you party pooper." Kasai's hand twitched at her side as she took in Koinu's profile, the fine nose, the full lips. She wondered about his bare chest. Was he rippling with muscle just like the village field workers? Had Inuyasha made his son run and work to the point of passing out? How had his hair looked while plastered with sweat? His ears too for that matter. Did he bare his sharp canines when he lifted a weight or when he tripped and fell under Inuyasha's strict drilling?

They were about nine months apart, with Kasai being the elder. Two years ago Kasai could see and feel that difference in age as a constant separation between them. Now Koinu had grown into a manlier body, he was almost sixteen. He would be stronger than her brothers because he was part inuyoukai. In the moonlight he looked as if he were on fire with a silver blaze.

For most of their lives Koinu and Kasai had been close friends. If they hadn't looked so different from one another a stranger might've mistaken them for siblings, perhaps even twins. Koinu had protected Kasai when she was small from her older, more powerful brothers. Being part dog demon, Koinu had the strength to do it and he made sure he used it. Some of Kasai's earliest memories were centered on Koinu. Playing tag with Koinu, drawing with Koinu, and talking with Koinu. He was the perfect brother that she'd never had.

But he wasn't related to her.

Her hand opened and closed convulsively where it lied in her lap.

"I want to please him so much—do you know what that's like, Kasai…?" he started to turn and look her in the eye and in that second Kasai lost her fragile, almost nonexistent control. Her hand shot out and latched onto Koinu's thigh and squeezed hard not once but twice, searching with a doctor's precision and determination for the muscle lying underneath.

Koinu's blue eyes shot open wide and round with shock, his mouth fell open. "What are you—" his hands scrabbled at his thigh frantically, as if her touch burned him. He ripped her hand away from him and threw it back at her. As fast as he could, Koinu was on his feet and standing several feet away in a crouched position, as if he'd have to fight her off.

"_Why did you do that?"_ he demanded in a hissing shout.

"I…" Kasai's mouth hung open; her hand was still reached outward, as if unable to adjust to the lack of thigh underneath it. She saw his ears shaking, quivering faintly in the sliver of moonlight and shame gripped her fiercely, spreading its burning fingers over her face and neck.

"I was trying to _talk_ to you!" Koinu stammered and his twittering ears had been joined by a shivering body though it wasn't the least bit cold outside…

"I have my father's cursed hand." Kasai blurted out and then covered her lips and squeezed her eyes shut. She'd never admitted to that truth aloud, never spoken of the hereditary perversion that she'd received from Miroku. Yet every day of her life beyond the age of twelve she'd known and felt it, crawling just beneath her skin like a parasite.

Koinu cocked his head to one side, the shaking in his ears and body quieted and stopped gradually. At long last he spoke up. "What?"

"I can't stop it sometimes." She murmured quietly, staring at the forgotten sword _Izoukago_ on the wooden walkway. "My hand just has to…touch…things…" she blinked her eyes shut tightly for a long second and then shook her head as if she were trying to clear snow or cobwebs out of her head. "You don't ever want to…?"

Koinu scowled and dropped onto all fours a few feet away from her, out of groping distance. His ears had swiveled forward and were pinned on her. His blue eyes were large and moist and carefully trained on her, they crinkled at the edges faintly as he wrestled with her words. His stance was so doglike that Kasai had to bite her tongue and hold her breath to restrain the bubbling laughter that tried to rise in her throat.

The faint jerk of her shoulders wasn't missed by Koinu's keen eyesight. "What are you laughing at?" he demanded, grumpily.

Kasai latched onto the opportunity to change the subject at once. "See—you sounded _just like_ Inuyasha there."

Koinu's ears fell flat again, though the frown didn't return to his face. "Dad would've cursed." He smiled faintly with fondness.

With the subject safely changed, Kasai grinned and laid her itchy palms onto Izoukago in front of her. She pushed it at Koinu across the wood floor of the walkway. He caught the blade before it slid into his crouched legs without breaking eye contact with Kasai.

"Kasai…?"

The girl was already unsheathing her slender, short sword _Burikko_. She held it with two hands reverently, one hand clasping the handle, the other barely making contact with the shining blade. Her grin hadn't faded in the least. "Let's fight, Koinu."

He shook his head slightly and pursed his lips. "Your mother is waiting for me and fighting would make too much noise. We'd wake everyone in the inn up."

"There are noisier things." Kasai winked at him and giggled in a way that made Koinu cock his head and blink. It was a new sound to him, a flirting sound that he'd only heard from village girls on occasion. He'd never given it thought before; in fact he usually found it mildly annoying. On Kasai's lips the sound was somehow different. It brought heat to his face.

"We'll be quiet and quick, I promise. Plus Mom's sleeping." Kasai leaned forward and let her voice drop to a low whisper. "That's the only reason why I'm out here, you know."

"She didn't let you come out here?" Koinu asked, his eyes widening, "We should both go back now…"

"Don't be so lame!" Kasai slammed Burikko onto the wooden walkway, making a clattering sound that drew a cringing expression from Koinu.

"Don't do that!" Koinu hissed quietly, reaching forward with one clawed hand to hold her sword flat, but as he did so Kasai leapt to her feet and backed away, lowering her body into a crouched fighting stance.

She leveled Burikko at him and grinned. "Foul beast!" she intoned, trying to sound like a man and keeping her voice lowered into a throaty, whispered rasp. "Fight for your honor if you can!"

Koinu scowled at her, his ears twitched and swiveled in every direction fearfully, as if he were about to start running away like an Olympic sprinter. He was still holding Izoukago with one hand, but his grasp was shaky and reluctant. "Kasai…!"

Still grinning widely, Kasai lunged at him with Burikko.

Backpedaling away from her, Koinu dodged the strike, twisting until he was behind her. As Kasai turned to face him again, leading with her sword, Koinu snatched her wrist with one hand and used Izoukago to block her advance with the other. "Stop it Kasai! I'm not going to spar with you!" he muttered when he had hold of her.

"You're not any fun." Kasai grumbled, wiggling her wrist in his grasp to tap his backsides with Burikko. "I want to see what you've learned since I sparred with you last." Her grin had dimmed, becoming a coyer, gentler expression.

"I'll spar with you tomorrow." Koinu assured her, staring her in the eye, making it a promise.

"We're going to see the samurai lords tomorrow." Kasai told him, pouting, "There won't be any time…now is our only chance!"

She pushed on his chest with her free hand, sending Koinu stumbling backward. Before he could regain his footing, Kasai was racing toward him with Burikko's tip focused on him.

Seeing her coming, Koinu dropped Izoukago and threw his body to the left. He dropped on the ground and rolled from the inn and the walkway. Smooth, dewy grass brushed against his hakama and haori, dampening the fabric. A thump nearby told him that Kasai hadn't wasted any time using stairs either. She'd hopped over the little gap of distance between the inn's walkway and the grass in front flanking the stairs.

Without thinking about it, Koinu tucked his body into a ball and rolled at her. Kasai gave a brief cry of surprise microseconds before Koinu crashed into her legs, sending the girl sprawling. As soon as she tottered and fell, Koinu leapt to his feet behind her and grabbed her by the waist. She hovered there, her arms lifted instinctually into a protective shield from the anticipated impact with the dewy grass. Her body quivered and twitched slightly between his hands. Koinu was acutely aware of her breaths, in and out, rapid. Her body was hot beneath the fabric of her kimono.

Kasai laughed then, a musical sound. She was still holding Burikko and, as she realized that Koinu had knocked her over and caught her in the same motion before she'd hit the ground, she spread her arms wide and waved them, as if she were trying to fly. "Woooo…"

The sound of her laughter, the idea of the hot skin beneath her robes, and the fast breathing forced Koinu's heart to pick up speed and a growing heat spread in his young loins.

Without any warning Koinu dropped Kasai and backed away several steps, crossing his arms over his chest. His ears were flat atop his head, his expression was sour.

Kasai spluttered and sat up, wiping the dew and grass bits off her face. She threw Koinu a short glare. "What was that for?" she whined. She grabbed Burikko up from where it'd fallen beside her and used it partially as a crutch to help herself up. "Payback or something?"

He wasn't about to tell her the truth! The moonlight was behind him, throwing his face into shadow. He was grateful that the incident hadn't happened in the daylight. Kasai would never miss the redness in his face and neck if there was sunlight to see by. "Yeah, payback." He growled.

She grinned and started to walk closer to him. Her breath came in little pants during her silence, sounds that made Koinu frown and fidget, shifting his weight from one side to the other uncomfortably. The light from the tiny sliver of the moon high above painted Kasai white and silver, it made her black hair gleam and her violent eyes look like spilled ink. When she was only three feet away she stopped and raised Burikko up between them.

"You sounded like your father there again. But I'm disappointed! I didn't know Son of Dog could play rough. I didn't know Son of Dog wouldn't fight like a man." She taunted him and, with her mouth open, lips slightly parted, Koinu could see her tongue, wriggling happily in its moist den.

Koinu's ears were pinned tightly against his head. He took a step back from Kasai, as if genuinely threatened. "Real men don't fight with women."

She closed her eyes. "Pretend I'm not a woman then. Maybe I won't win if you do that."

The heat between his legs hadn't dissipated. Koinu turned his back on Kasai and started to walk away. He fought to control his breathing and clear his mind. He shook his head once, blinked his eyes viciously. Where was his inner self-control? How had she dragged him into a silly brawl in the middle of the night anyway?

"Hey!" Kasai called from behind him and Koinu could see her in his mind's eye, painted silver by the moon, one hand on her hip with irritation, the other holding Burikko, unwilling to relinquish the possibility of violence. When he twisted his head around to peek at her it was exactly as he'd imagined it—except that she was stomping up closer to him.

"Take me seriously, Koinu!" she ordered and, with the faint light from the moon covering her face, Koinu could see the lines of displeasure in her face, the realness of her unhappiness. "I want to see what you've learned, idiot!" she huffed, reminding Koinu vaguely of his mother in that moment, a memory that forced him to turn his head away from her to hide his smile.

It didn't work. Kasai saw his expression and her mouth fell open indignantly. Her feathers were thoroughly ruffled now. "You think I haven't learned anything, don't you? You think it's my moronic brothers that do all the demon killing?"

The bitterness in her voice cut at last at the annoying warmth in his loins and Koinu felt his body return to near normalcy as Kasai's taunting failed, as her real personality at last broke through. She was human again with the addition of that bitterness. She wasn't a haunting, sexual temptress, she was flawed and insecure and even weak. Koinu could rejoice in that normalcy, for it was those weaknesses that he shared with her.

His shoulders sagged as the tension left his body and he turned to face her. Her nostrils were flared with irritation with each inhalation and her eyes were a little too moist. Burikko was still lifted up in an aggressive motion, but Koinu batted it away effortlessly. "Tonight we're going back to the room before your mother throws a fit. As soon as we can we'll fight for real, okay? I promise that, by the way." He leaned forward and dropped his voice slightly, "And I _know_ it isn't just your brothers that kill youkai, okay?"

Biting her lips, Kasai nodded curtly. "I'm sorry—I lost my temper I guess." She waved Burikko absently and both Koinu and Kasai followed the motion of the shimmering sword with their eyes. "Do you think you can beat me in a swordfight now, Koinu?"

"When we fight we'll just have to see." Koinu smiled at her, a small, almost timid expression, and then turned his back on her, heading resolutely for the inn. After a dozen steps, when he'd reached the stairs leading up to the walkway, he twisted around to look back at her. "Aren't you coming?"

Kasai shook her head, appearing suddenly distracted or pensive. "No, I think I'll walk for a while…"

Koinu growled once, short and quick, making Kasai's eyes flick toward him with surprise. "You're coming inside and going to sleep like Aunt Sango wanted you to, now come on."

She sighed and followed him obediently, her plans of spying on other residents of the inn—some of whom could be engaging in some juicy, entertaining fornication—sadly thwarted. Once more she passed silently by her sleeping mother and settled into the blankets and the sleeping mat that she'd abandoned before.

Just after she'd gotten comfortable, the floor squeaked and she saw Koinu tiptoeing by her sleeping mother. He disappeared outside, his shadow passing over the screens, but she anticipated the reason why and grinned into her hands giddily. In the past she'd stumbled on her older brothers "relieving" themselves sexually, a thing that was typical, if not universal among boys. It repulsed her and intrigued her at once. Surely Koinu was slipping out to do just that. The idea of it made her face heat up and the giggles try to spill out of her throat.

Kasai rolled onto her stomach and pressed her mouth into her elbow, cutting off the sounds. In that position she froze, seeing Koinu's shadow reappear on the screens. Now Koinu was carrying a long, rod shape with him—_Izoukago._ He'd slipped out of the room to retrieve the sword that he considered the symbol of his shame. The fit of giggling died in her throat and Kasai scowled as she laid her cheek flat to the futon, listening as Koinu stepped into the room for the final time and gently woke Sango too. They bid one another goodnight and Kasai closed her eyes, feigning sleep as Sango slid onto the mats at her side, pulling on the covers.

For as long as she'd known him, Koinu had been proper, much like his mother. If he dealt with an inappropriate topic he managed to do it in a detached, objective way that was a major buzz-kill as far as Kasai was concerned. It was true Koinu wasn't even completely human. Was he even capable of sexual thought or function? Was it his personality or training or was it his biology? Part of Kasai was actually disappointed that Koinu hadn't left to "relieve" himself.

Koinu's stoicism, his self-control—his boyhood innocence?—perplexed Kasai and, like any good investigator, she was determined to crack him.

* * *

Kishokachi Tousho was the representative of the family that met with the slayers the following morning. Sango brought her three oldest children, leaving only Masuyo for Koinu to look after though the two were only a couple years apart. Sango allowed her children to carry only one small weapon each into the castle as a precaution. They left dressed in their bland, everyday clothing, but with their bodysuits hidden beneath, ready for action should it arise unexpectedly.

As Kohimu had grown older, taller, and stronger, it became more and more common for their employers to falsely address Kohimu as the leader of the slayers. For the time being, Sango allowed it as the messengers and servants led their group into the audience room. They sat in a V-shape with Sango and Kohimu leading, Kasai and Tisoki behind, flanking them.

Kishokachi Tousho was a tall, narrow man that spoke in a high, whiny voice. By the time the slayers arrived the lord was already present, waiting for them. Before their arrival that morning he'd already been busy with numerous meetings. Kishokachi fussed at his scribe for a time while maids appeared to lay tea out for the visiting slayers. Sango and her children waited, patiently bowed until Kishokachi at last grunted and told Kohimu to sit up.

"I want this to be done and over with swiftly." He announced, sniffing. "I'm willing to pay your group a substantial amount to be rid of this demon. The killings have begun to cut into the fishing harvests. Almost daily this…" he scowled and his plump, round nostrils flared, "…beast takes a fisherman. She sings or some nonsense and lures them into the sea and eats them. You and your group come highly recommended but…" he narrowed his eyes at them, squinting distastefully. "How do you intend to kill a beast that entrances only men?"

Sango sat up now, though Kishokachi hadn't acknowledged her directly just yet. "My lord, we have come to beseech you for any information you have on this demon."

Kishokachi glared at Sango and addressed Kohimu, "You let the woman speak for you?"

Kohimu bowed deeply, his expression was stiff, "Lord Kishokachi—this woman is our leader and my most honorable mother."

The lord snorted and, reluctantly, shifted his attention to Sango. He paused for a moment, considering the visitors before him and then plunged onward. "I have brought in demon experts before to deal with this beast. For a hefty fee I've been assured that the beast is female and it is…" his face rippled with disgust as if he'd spied a cockroach crawling around the room, "…not a _full demon."_

Now Kasai and Tisoki sat up as well, staring with surprise. Tisoki spoke up, "Not a full demon, Lord Kishokachi?"

"Yes," the lord grunted, still snarling disgustedly, "Perhaps you are all better qualified to tell me exactly what that means."

"It is possible," Sango began cautiously, "for a demon to interbreed with a human."

"Then it's even more important that it be slaughtered. Not only is it killing my fisherman, but it's an abomination." Kishokachi snarled, "What else do you need to know?"

"We must learn of what type of demon it is, Lord Kishokachi. Where have these attacks occurred? Are there any survivors of the attacks? Most importantly I would like to learn what you know of this demon's victims. Has it ever attacked or entranced a woman or a boy, or another demon? Perhaps even another creature such as itself, a _hanyou._ If it has a limitation to what it can entrance, than we will use it." Sango told him, quickly, and with some urgency.

Kishokachi was beginning to smile at her almost fondly. He glanced toward Kohimu and gave a grunting, thick laugh. "You have a very wise, intelligent mother. A rare commodity!"

Sango lowered her eyes, allowing herself to blush at the lavish, albeit slightly backhanded compliment. She bowed silently to express her thanks, at her side Kohimu did the same but also murmured the words to complete it.

"I presume," Kishokachi went on, "that warrior women are indeed the secret to your success in this case. As far as I know, no woman or girl has ever been taken by this creature. Also, she favors men, though she has taken boys." He shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat, "As far as her nonhuman victims…my cousin employed a series of kitsune assassins. He hoped that they would kill this creature. All of them were male and none of them has returned. I don't know if they've perished or been entranced or if they just left of their own free will. You can assume what you'd like about their fates." He paused frowningly before going on, searching over Sango and Kohimu carefully, "Why would I know anything about other _hanyou?"_

Kohimu interjected, bowing respectively as he did so, "My lord, if this creature cannot entrance _all_ men it would be possible for us to take advantage of Lord Inuyasha's help in slaying this beast."

Kishokachi's frown deepened. "Who?" he shook his head, dazedly; "I've heard that name before. Some ruffian I thought. Why do you give him a _title?"_

"He is a ha—" Kohimu stopped when Sango elbowed him. His words turned into a small cough and he glared at Sango as she spoke in his place.

"He is a powerful warrior with a great deal of experience in slaying _hanyou_ and many other kinds of demons. Perhaps you recall Ryukotsusei the dragon?" when she received a blank stare from Kishokachi, Sango continued onward anyway, though her voice had lost some of its strength. "Lord Inuyasha killed him."

Kishokachi was silent for a moment and then he grunted and waved his hand dismissively. "I don't care who you have help you, I just want this beast dealt with."

"Have there been any survivors?" Kasai asked, at last raising her voice.

The lord barely spared her a glance, apparently having accepted the bizarreness of the slayers in front of him some time ago, "A village south of here has had a few, I believe. If you can call them that." He grinned darkly, leaving the topic hanging, waiting to be plucked like a ripe fruit.

"What did they do to survive?" Kohimu asked, "Was there a common strategy between them?"

"You'll find more by talking to them!" Kishokachi gestured helplessly. "All I know is that the 'survivors' come back deaf and insane! One of them was arrested for killing his wife. I saw him before I had him executed for the crime. An old, skinny man that spent all his time babbling to himself. He was so deaf that he didn't react when I sentenced him to death!" Kishokachi laughed darkly, apparently finding the memory amusing.

Sango had grown noticeably paler. She bowed, feeling her body growing heavy around her. "Thank you, Lord Kishokachi. I believe we have learned all that we can here. We will slay this beast for you and your people gladly."

The slayers began to get to their feet but Kishokachi whistled, catching Kohimu's attention before he'd turned his back on the lord. Kishokachi waggled one long, skeletal finger at Kohimu and the other slayers moving steadily toward the door. "You," he muttered at Kohimu, grinning almost sadistically, "tell the other men with you—a detail I could not utter with the women present." He crooked his finger, summoning Kohimu closer.

Warily, with his legs stiff and his hands tucked close to his sides where Kohimu kept a knife hidden away inside his peasant pants, Kohimu took a few steps closer to Kishokachi and knelt. "I am listening, lord."

Kishokachi's teeth were stained yellow from tea. They were exposed in his wide, cruel grin. "The 'survivors' of these attacks all share one similarity aside from their deafness and insanity. I thought it would be important that one so young and handsome as you be warned about it in particularly." His grin grew wider and crooked, "All of the men that this beast returns are mutilated. They are all castrated."

Kohimu stared, his eyes wide, at the lanky, gawky lord, absorbing the information somberly. He bowed and began to thank Kishokachi in flowery, careful words when the lord reached out and touched his hair, his cheek. Kohimu pulled slowly away, his jaw clenching. "I must join the others."

"Just remember what I said." Kishokachi smirked and now Kohimu could make out the slackness of his jaw, the gleam in his eyes, the way the lord's gaze roved appreciatively over his body. "It would be a true shame to see a fine lad like you return in such an unfortunate condition."

Stiffly, Kohimu bowed, thanked the lord again, and left.

* * *

"You do it this way, see?" Masuyo held out the block of wood he'd been picking at with his knife, showing it to Koinu.

Koinu's blue eyes flicked between Masuyo's work and the block of wood in his own hands. It was unshaped still, unrecognizable as any kind of weapon or decorative carving. His ears flattened briefly with frustration and then rose again as his expression became one of determination. The carving knife was made of a slick metal but the handle felt too short to Koinu. He feared cutting himself—he'd spotted the scars on Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo's hands. With his extra strength Koinu was certain that a slip that had scarred Sango's boys would nearly sever one of his own fingers. As a result he was cautious about applying pressure to his knife. The wood block showed his fear and unsteadiness with its lack of shape.

Making a decision, Koinu cupped the wood block in his palm and handed the carving knife—handle first as was proper—back to Masuyo. The boy took it with a saddened expression. "You're giving up, Koinu?"

He shook his head and grinned, more for Masuyo's benefit than his own. "I've just decided to change tools."

Lifting his block for Masuyo to watch, Koinu began to pick at it with his own claws, alternating fingers and pressures. The woodchips began to pile up. The shavings were different from those left with a knife and the work wouldn't be as smooth, but the method was proving faster than what Masuyo could do with his own knife.

The door slid open then, rattling on its track. Masuyo and Koinu looked as one, greeting Sango, Kohimu, Kasai, and Tisoki as they entered the room.

"What did you find out?" Masuyo asked eagerly.

"You don't want to be involved with this at all, little brother." Kohimu muttered, sitting down nearby heavily. He snatched up the knife that Koinu had stopped using and used it to pick underneath his fingernails, a deep scowl written over his face.

"Yeah, it's some nasty shit." Tisoki growled. He'd begun prowling the room almost restlessly, seeking a way out. Finally he settled in the corner where the group had left their weapons. He gathered up his own and hid them about his body, inside his clothes, and slung the sickle with its chain carefully around his shoulders. Kasai joined him as well, separating out the family's favored weapons into piles.

Suddenly, blocking Koinu's view of Tisoki and Kasai, Sango sat in front of Koinu, her face set in a somber, heavy expression. "Koinu I need to ask a favor of you."

He blinked at her, taken aback. "Yes—I'll do it."

Sango smiled wanly at him and took a deep breath. "Lord Kishokachi told us that this youkai kills or entrances all men and boys, but she has never attacked a girl or a woman. I'm afraid that Kasai and I won't be enough to kill a whale youkai alone, but we're going to try."

Koinu listened attentively, nodding. "How can I help?"

Sango opened her mouth to speak and then paused, hesitant at the last moment. Finally she sighed and told him, "I'm going to ask you to bring your mother and Akisame to help us."

"Father would never allow it." Koinu stammered, his ears flattening.

Sango closed her eyes tiredly. "I know. I know it will be difficult. I don't care what you have to tell him to get them here but…" Sango rubbed her face with her hands and when she pulled them away Koinu saw the brightness in her eyes and scented the beginning of tears.

He cringed, shrinking back from her. "Aunt…" he shook his head, dropping the formality. "Sango…?"

When the mother of the demon slayers looked up at Koinu she found herself lost once more in that timelessness. Koinu resembled Inuyasha so much, except for the lightness of his eyes and the lack of the Fire Rat robe, he was identical. The biggest difference of all was inside. Inuyasha would've been just as alarmed at her weakness and near-to-tears mood, but he would've ordered her to stop crying. Koinu wore his heart on his sleeve and was more likely to embrace her as Kagome would've.

"What's wrong?" Koinu asked, lowering his voice and searching her face, trying to understand where her sudden emotion had sprung from and why.

Masuyo was gazing at her as well, the boy's face was smooth with surprise at seeing his mother's slumped posture, hearing her wavering, uncertain words. Kohimu had left his carving knife and gone to join Kasai and Tisoki in the corner, arranging and preparing the family's weapons.

Without looking at her son, Sango said, "Masuyo, why don't you help the others? You've done enough carving for now."

Masuyo nodded wordlessly and left his wood block and carving knife behind. Timidly he joined his brothers and sister and started to pick out his own favored weapons.

Perplexedly, Koinu watched Sango as she sent Masuyo away. Why did she want to speak to him so privately? "Sango?"

Sango pursed her lips into tight, thin lines. "Koinu you _must_ get your mother and your sister to help us. I'm…" she sighed and her face flushed red, "…I'm not going to be able to do this without them."

Koinu frowned and shook his head, "I don't understand." He struggled to understand her behavior. There was some unspoken reason behind her request. The problem wasn't only the whale youkai, though any demon that targeted men as this one did would be harder to hunt, but Koinu knew that Sango was experienced and strong—why would a tough hunt intimidate her so much this time?

For a time she looked as though she were fighting with herself, wrestling with her lips, trying to say something. Then her brow furrowed in a deep frown. "We just need as many women as we can get. Can you convince your father to let your mother and Akisame help us?"

Although still confused by her request, Koinu nodded. "I'll do my best." He glanced toward the corner where Masuyo and Kasai were bickering over some throwing knives. "Are you leaving?"

Sango nodded. "Yes."

"Where will I find you?"

"There's a village south of here by the name of Seizansha. A few survivors of these attacks are there." She smiled, her eyes beginning to lighten with genuine relief, "Can you find it, Koinu?"

"Yes," his ears flattened as he considered how much time he'd need to rush home and convince his father to head out on their bizarre little adventure together. "I'll see you in about three days, Aunt Sango."

"Good luck Koinu."

He left quickly, saying only a few quick goodbyes to the others. Tisoki and Masuyo offered him poisoned daggers but Koinu declined. Before he could escape Kasai hugged him and groped his ears.

Three miles later, rushing through the trees as fast as he could, the answer to Sango's desperation suddenly smacked into him with as much force as one of the tree branches whipping and slapping at his face. He paused as the realization swept over him, grasping a tree branch and panting, his thoughts rushing furiously. The realization involved a scent and a faint, distant memory.

The cycles of fertility and menstruation were scents he was familiar with and had been from a very young age. For almost all of his life, Koinu had unconsciously scented and then ignored his own mother's cycles and now Akisame's as well. When Kasai had hugged him he'd caught her rich scent, caught somewhere in a moment of fertility.

But when Sango had sat in front of him the scent was altered in a way he had known only rarely. It was a scent that inspired his earliest memories: his parents bickering, his grandmother, great-grandfather, and uncle gushing together with excitement, white hallways and white-coated men that were the healers and doctors of his mother's era. Most of all he remembered pressing his face and ears into his mother's rounded belly, hearing and smelling his unborn sister hidden away inside.

Sango was pregnant, again.

Koinu rushed on, filled with a new urgency.

* * *

A/N: It didn't seem right to me for Sango to just blurt out the news to Koinu. I wanted to have her do it, but I thought that firstly she thinks Koinu already knows because IY always does, and secondly it probably wasn't something talked about in the open as much as we do now. In her position, stuck on a job, she's probably really embarrassed about it too. The more women the better for her too in case she miscarries or gets sick. I highly doubt her sons would want to be apart of that sort of women's thing. In many cultures that sort of thing is very "unclean." Plus she needs Aki and Kagome anyway. 


	8. Moonless Night

A/N: It's my birthday today. Last week when I wrote most of this chapter it was my boyfriend's spring break. He spent our last weekend together sick and then there was my flat tire ordeal on Saturday. Ugh. Now on my flipping 22nd birthday I wake up and find out that he spent the night in the hospital up where he goes to college two hours away for heart attack-like symptoms! I'm kind of in shock, I don't know what to think about it. The doctors said he was severely dehydrated, but I just don't understand how or why he got like that so badly…and there's just nothing I can do for him down here…they released him and he's been sleeping but I just don't know what to think about it, maybe I just can't. Here's this guy I'm thinking very seriously about spending the rest of my life with and he's having near-heart attacks when he's barely 20? And on my birthday no less. Sometimes I think God is poking me and everyone else with a stick to test us, like the writer manipulating her characters…

Anyway, does anybody like Kasai? I had someone tell me they hated her. She's very rough around the edges…so is Aki too actually. I'm a paranoid writer, I worry about my characters. I sometimes have trouble with female characters I think; it's a weakness of mine. Just that random question. 

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Koinu and Kasai sparred. Kasai had some very naughty thoughts about Koinu. Sango, Tisoki, Kohimu, and Kasai met with Lord Kishokachi and learned about the demon they have to kill. It takes men and boys alike, and may or may not attack demons. It has never taken a woman or a girl. Sango and the slayers learned that there are survivors of the attacks, but they are returned deaf and insane and castrated. After learning this Sango asked Koinu to go and get Kagome and Akisame to help. 

**Moonless Night**

It was a warm, sweltering summer night. The sun had barely set completely behind the western hills and mountains and already there was dew lying thick over the grass, weighing the blades down. Akisame walked barefoot through it, grumblingly pulling up her longer, woman's style kimono. The robes were long enough that they collected dew and then made Akisame feel clammy. She longed for the short kimono that she'd long since outgrown and the leggings. But her mother had started insisting that she wear the proper clothes for a girl of her age. The short robe with the leggings was too "revealing."

The twins Appu and Umou, as well as Shippo, walked with her. 

It was the night of the new moon, the night that Inuyasha and Koinu were both stripped of their inuyoukai heritage. For Koinu the loss of senses lingered for a few days after the transformation, as his human characteristics at times. For Inuyasha the reaction was like clockwork, for Koinu it was unpredictable. For a time, when Koinu had been seven or eight, the transformation had started lasting for up to a week. He would remain human every night and even through part of the day. 

Oddly enough Akisame was unaffected by the moon. She had never experienced the transformation, her senses were always keen, her eyes always golden like Inuyasha's. While Inuyasha stayed holed up inside his estate on this night, Akisame moved fearlessly through the village, aware that this was the one night when she could be sure that Inuyasha wouldn't follow her or try to stop her. 

Tonight Shippo was the bodyguard and he was easily distracted by the village girls, or by a scent on the wind, or by a rumor of a troublemaking demon somewhere. It was almost like a kitsune attention disorder. He lingered behind Akisame, Appu and Umou, lost in his own world of senses even higher and more extreme than Akisame or Inuyasha's. 

The mission this evening was collecting herbs and mushrooms. Akisame and Shippo hunted them down, identifying them even in the dark with their keen noses. Appu and Umou carried the sacks to collect them in. Tomorrow Kagome would sell or trade the wild harvest and split some of the money with the twins. 

Hiking up her kimono again, scowling with irritation as she did it, Akisame knelt on the dewy grass and sniffed doggishly at the ground. The trees swayed in the forest nearby, whispering eerily. The twins hovered near Akisame, shivering. Like many humans they were afraid of being out very long after dark. Their bags were filled with herbs and mushrooms already; they were essentially finished with their task. It was a fine harvest, Kagome would be pleased with it—but Akisame wasn't ready to relinquish her freedom yet. 

The tallest twin, Appu, at last gathered her courage and asked, "Aki, isn't it time for us to go back home?"

Umou strengthened the argument adding, "Our father expected us home by sundown I'm sure."

"Don't be such a chicken." Akisame scolded them snorting. "There's nothing bad out here, hasn't been for years. My dad killed everything that wasn't human for like a hundred miles."

Off in the darkness, closer to the tree line, Shippo laughed harshly. "There are plenty of nonhuman monsters still roaming around here, Aki."

"Can we go back to the village now, please?" Appu asked, her voice was shivery, mimicking her body's convulsive movements. Her jaw chattered though it wasn't cold outside. Umou whimpered and moved closer to her sister. 

Akisame growled and crawled forward on her knees, wetting her kimono with grass, dew, and dirt. She closed her fist around a clump of plants with bulbous, thick leaves and pulled. The herb ripped out of the ground, tearing at the roots. "I got another one!'

"We have enough, Aki!" Umou whined. 

"Shut up—there's nothing out here." Akisame stood up and reached for Appu's bag. She slid the latest catch into it and slapped her palms together, feeling the grit of dirt between them. She grinned, enjoying it. 

"Please Aki, take the bags and let us go home…" Appu pleaded. 

Akisame snorted and snatched the bags from them. "Okay, fine. Shippo!"

The kitsune moved once, rustling the grasses and weeds where he was standing twenty feet away and then, with a popping sound, he appeared in a small, odorless cloud of white smoke directly at Akisame's side. His green eyes gleamed brightly when he caught the way Appu and Umou gasped and backpedaled from him nervously. "What can I do for you all?"

"Escort them back to the village." Akisame told him gruffly as she tied a knot at the top of each sack.

"You have to come too, Aki." Shippo scolded her, his expression turning serious for a moment. "Inuyasha will slaughter me if he thought I'd left you alone even for a second."

"I can take care of myself and I'm just going to go straight home." Akisame snarled, slinging the sacks over her shoulders and standing high and tall, puffing her chest out. "Now take them back to the village!"

There was a long pause and for a time it seemed that Shippo would resist but finally he grinned widely and shrugged his boyish shoulders at her. "Okay if you're sure!"

"Of course I'm fucking sure!" Akisame griped, at last losing her patience. She moved as if about to slap Shippo on the shoulder or the back but the kitsune vanished without warning. Her hand passed through a cloudy puff of air and the next time she looked up Shippo was holding Appu and Umou's hands, pulling them away. 

"Just be safe, Aki!" Shippo shouted at her as he headed off at a jog. 

There was a teasing lilt to his voice that Akisame paused at, mildly alarmed. She searched the field and the woods nearby, narrowing her eyes and sniffing a few times but the only thing in her nose was the rich stink of dirt, herbs, and the mushrooms, a few of which she'd eaten throughout the course of the evening. The lack of moonlight made the evening unusually dark and, as the sounds of Shippo and the twins' footsteps diminished and faded, Akisame began to feel the darkness around her growing heavier, as if the trees were watching her. 

With a deep breath, Akisame raced off, hauling the sacks on her shoulders, heading for the trees. The kimono was too long and too tight around her legs to let her run as she wanted, however. Akisame stumbled quickly and fell flat on her face. Her cheek hit the ground and scraped along for a heartbeat before the rest of her collapsed after it. She sat up and spat grass, dew, and dirt from her mouth, growling irritably. 

Before she rose to her feet again she tugged on her clothes, loosening the obi and parting the kimono at the side seam. Triumphantly she slipped one leg out from the restraining fabric and grinned brightly at it. Grunting, Akisame pulled herself upright and hauled the sacks up with her. She strode forward with one leg always protruding from her kimono, white fleshed in the darkness, exposed all the way up to her thigh. 

She romped toward the tree line and then, suddenly, became aware of the thudding of another creature's running footsteps, echoing her own. Akisame had time enough to stop and pivot on one foot to face the direction that her pursuer was coming from before he was on her. 

A hard, male body collided with her and she fell backwards, crying out. She dropped the sacks immediately and lashed out. Her clawed hands met with fabric, it ripped and screamed, giving way. 

"Whoa! Aki!" a male voice protested, hopping hurriedly out of her reach. 

Akisame blinked unsteadily and shook her head. In the poor light she saw a young man, completely human. His hair was long, flowing freely down his back but tied behind his shoulders to keep it out of his face. The hair was as black as her own—but his eyes were light, not brown but blue. The voice he'd spoken with was Koinu's. 

"Koinu!" she snarled, "You idiot! What are you doing here? Why didn't you come greet me like a real person not some fucking…"

He laughed and grinned, his teeth as white as her exposed leg, freed of its kimono. "I couldn't resist. I saw you fall—very graceful, Aki."

"Shut the hell up! Like you could do any fucking better!" she ranted, bristling. Self-consciously she rubbed her cheek and checked her hand for any smeared blood or dirt. 

"Fair point. I'm sure I look just as stupid when I fall." Koinu chuckled and then cleared his throat, hopping to his feet. "I'll carry those; you can concentrate on running in that thing."

"Fuck you." Stubbornly Akisame grabbed up the sacks and threw them over her shoulder defiantly. As she stood up her obi shifted, coming completely untied and sliding in a pile to her ankles. Her kimono fell slackly open, revealing her shorter under robe and shift beneath. Akisame cursed and dropped the sacks in favor of fixing her clothes. "I hate this girly shit."

Koinu picked up the sacks while she adjusted her kimono and retied the obi sloppily. "I thought you weren't a girl anymore, remember?" he snickered at her expense and started heading for the trees. 

Still fumbling with her clothes, Akisame followed. "Are you going to keep flapping your lips uselessly or are you going to tell me why you're home? Dad's going to be pissed if he hears you let Kohimu and Tisoki chase you off or something—or if Sango sent you packing because you were making eyes at Kasai."

Koinu growled, "I'm not that irresponsible."

They were half-jogging, half-walking through the trees, weaving in and out of them at a swift pace. "Then why are you here? You know, Sango is pregnant—she needs all the protection she can get! That's why Dad sent you…"

"Yeah—with a _woman's sword."_ Koinu snarled, bitterly. His jaw clenched tightly. "I don't know how to please him…"

"Hell!" Akisame blustered, laughingly, "Do you think I know how to…? But anyway, about _Izoukago_, Dad didn't mean to insult you; he was just too paranoid to give you the Tetsusaiga. You knew that right?"

Koinu shrugged, halfway ignoring her by changing the subject, "He didn't tell me that Aunt Sango was pregnant, I had to figure it out myself. She sent me here," he locked his gaze with her for a brief moment and then turned back to the forest, pressing forward, "to get _you_ and Mom to help because she thinks she can't do it alone."

"And this youkai eats men? Just men?" Akisame asked. 

"Yeah, so she needs all the girls she can get."

The siblings darted around a tree, avoiding it and then moving to run alongside one another once more. "You'll never convince Dad." Akisame predicted, darkly.

* * *

Things had been going reasonably well for Inuyasha on that particular evening. First of all it was the new moon, which was an event that usually brought him foul luck and a sour mood, but not tonight. He despised the monthly human weakness in every way except one: the night of the new moon was his only chance to have children. 

Off and on since Akisame had been born, Inuyasha had tried to convince Kagome to have another baby. At first she was reluctant—Akisame proved to be a greater handful than either of them could've ever imagined. After that initial reluctance, however, Inuyasha had for a time shied away from enlarging his family any further. After an incident where Sesshomaru, looking for Rin, had threatened to kill Koinu, he became obsessed with protecting them, patrolling the estate and the village, searching for any sign of trouble. He immersed himself in training Akisame and Koinu, forgetting any thoughts of having another baby. 

Until now. 

From the moment Akisame had "become a woman" Inuyasha became tormented with the disturbing possibility of losing her. Not to a monster, but to age and time. Someday Akisame and Koinu would leave in pursuit of their own families, their own land perhaps, their own adventures. He would fight that eventuality tooth and nail, but it couldn't be denied forever. His children were growing up. 

That evening, as the sun set and the moon rose, and Inuyasha felt the pain as his body reshaped itself, he felt a surge of triumph as well. Tonight was no longer his curse, it had become his blessing. 

A was usual on the new moon, Kagome proceeded to pamper him. She offered him chocolate and any choice of dinner that he wanted. He choose a fish flavored Ramen and slurped it down eagerly. Akisame and Shippo had left much earlier in the day to escape the stuffy heat inside, trading it for the hot wind outside. They were gathering herbs and mushrooms and whatever else it was that Kagome liked to sell in the marketplace twice a week. With Koinu out with Sango and her children, Inuyasha had all the opportunity in the world to make his move on the unsuspecting Kagome. She was in a spot in her cycle that he thought was fertile, but he couldn't be sure. The unpredictability of the female body was another drawback that had often kept them from having children. Just because Inuyasha was fertile on the new moon didn't mean that Kagome was…

But tonight he felt _lucky._

Kagome plopped down on some cushions across the room from where he was eating. She was flipping through the pages of a book that she'd acquired on her last visit to her mother's. The title was something silly that he wasn't sure he understood: _Memoirs of a Geisha._ It had occupied Kagome's world for two days now, making her gasp and frown at the pages as she turned them, her eyes bonded to the print like hydrogen and oxygen molecules stuck together to make water. As he watched her, she narrowed her eyes at the page she was reading, as if it'd offended her, calling her fat or tossing out an insulting name…

Inuyasha pushed his bowl of Ramen away and got to his feet. Kagome didn't look up as he approached her; she was enraptured by the print on the page. The hanyou snatched the book out of her hands easily and lifted it up to his own nose, squinting at it. "What the hell is so damned interesting about this thing?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped, startled and then promptly angry. "Give that back! I was just in the middle of something important…"

"Feh." He lowered the thing when he spotted a long name: _Hatsumomo._ "You always have your nose in this thing…" he whined and stared at her unblinkingly, hoping that his stare would hint to her that _he_ wanted to be the object of her attention that night. 

"It's a really good book. You should read it—they made a movie but it's starring a bunch of Chinese actresses," Kagome frowned. 

Her words were meaningless to Inuyasha. Carelessly he dropped the book on the floor, ignoring her protests. When she tried to pick it up, Inuyasha blocked her way, smirking. 

"Ugh!" Kagome let out a howled sigh of frustration and crossed her arms over her chest. "What's wrong with you tonight, Dog Boy?"

He scowled at her, "I'm not a dog." He brushed a hand over the top of his head, showing her the fact that he had no dog ears. His hair was black, his eyes an ordinary brown. Stepping even closer to her, invading her personal space, he made his move, making his desires clearer to her at last by nuzzling her neck, her ears. "And I ain't a boy either."

Her mouth worked the air with mild surprise at first, but she gave in quickly and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She tilted her head back and made a small, low noise in her throat, enjoying the faint, erotic touch of his lips and tongue on her neck and shoulder. Ah yes, he had her now. 

His luck ended at exactly that moment, just as her scent had started to arouse him, just as his hands had closed around her waist and started to seek out the seam on her shirt…

The door in the kitchen rattled open and clearly—even to Inuyasha's now human, weak ears—he could make out the endless bickering of Akisame and Koinu, droning onwards. Reacting as one with shock, husband and wife turned to stare toward the kitchen at the unexpected arrival of their son.

* * *

The coastal village of Seizansha was small but fairly prosperous. Huts lined the hills along the beach, overlooking the sea, their harsh but fertile mistress. Fishermen were everywhere, mending their nets, water sealing their little boats with wax or oils, or hauling in the first catches of the day. 

Seizansha wasn't accustomed to many visitors, it wasn't a rich spot and tourism was still a thing in the far distant future. That was why the villagers and fishermen looked up with surprise and even alarm as the demon slayers strolled into their village out of the forest. 

The first natives that Sango and her clan ran across were young children, romping about the fields just outside of Seizansha. They were dirty, brown skinned from the summer sun, and utterly naked. There was a small brook that spilled out of the foothills before the beach, curving its way lazily to join the sea a short distance away. The children had been swimming in the stream, but when they spotted the strangers approaching most of them screamed and fled for the village to alert their parents. 

As was customary, Sango and her children waited near the stream, hoping that the children would bring an elder to meet with them. 

A few of the children, younger boys, had stayed in the stream, watching the slayers suspiciously. Masuyo approached the water and knelt to scoop up a handful to drink. His action, and his younger age, made the boys in the stream start splashing at him, testing his reaction cautiously. Masuyo splashed back, grinning. It was, of course, the action he'd hoped to elicit. 

The largest boy in the stream shouted at the others to stop and then, with his genitals hidden by the water embarrassedly, he called out to Masuyo, Sango, and the others. "Who are you people?"

Masuyo glanced back at Sango, waiting for her to answer. Instead Sango nodded at him and made a small, encouraging gesture. The young teenager turned back to regard the naked boy in the stream some ten feet away. "We're demon slayers, my name's Masuyo."

"What are you doing here?" one of the smaller boys demanded. Unlike the older, cautious boy, this one stood up to his full height proudly, revealing his nakedness without shame. He was probably five or six years old, comfortable in his skin, happy to be naked. 

"We've come to kill a whale youkai!" Masuyo announced, merrily. 

The older boy's eyes widened, "You're going to try to kill the demon Iruka?" 

Masuyo craned his neck around to seek Sango's guidance. The name was unfamiliar to him, but Sango in all her wisdom, might know who _Iruka_ was. She'd met many, many more demons than Masuyo, Kohimu, Tisoki, or Kasai had. Was Iruka the name of the whale youkai after all?

Sango's eyes had narrowed as she absorbed the boy's words. "Iruka?" the boy used it as a name, but it was the word for _dolphin_ or_porpoise._

"Yeah, the monster woman from the sea that kills fishermen." The boy told her, his face warped into a hateful, fearful mask. "You've come to kill her?"

"Yes," Sango spoke for the group now, "but first we would like to speak to the survivors in your village. We were told that there are three of them here?"

The boy's face brightened, blushing, but he pursed his lips and clenched his young jaw determinedly. "Let me get my clothes and I'll take you to meet them."

* * *

"That ain't gonna happen!" Inuyasha glared at his son and slowly, meaningfully crossed his arms over his powerful chest. "Tell her to back out of the job."

"Aunt Sango has already seen the lord of Gakemachi, Father. She's committed her services to the task, and the creature needs to be killed…"

"Let the fuckin' fishermen's wives do it!" Inuyasha blustered, snarling. When his lips rippled on this black, moonless night, his teeth were smooth. There were no threatening canines, yet Inuyasha continued to flare his teeth on occasion, as if the intimidating oral weapons were still present. 

"Really heartless thing to say, Dad," Akisame made the same motion with her lips as she spoke, but unlike her brother and father, the moonless night had left her unchanged. Her white teeth had points in the corners, sharp canines. 

Inuyasha's face warped and rearranged itself for a moment as he struggled to assimilate Akisame's words and react accordingly. His dominance, his family, was on the line. "It ain't our problem!"

Kagome sighed, her shoulders heaving up and then down, "It could be, Inuyasha. What if Sango loses her sons or her life because of this?" She pinned him with her gaze, driving her point home, "You would feel _terrible_ about it, I know you would."

The tables had turned on the hanyou. He uncrossed his arms and gestured defensively, as if he could swat their words and the reality of the situation away. "She should just back out of it! She can't fuckin' win without…" he stopped, catching the hole he was digging for himself. _Sango can't kill a demon that preys on men without more __**women**__ at her command._

His family stared at him expectantly, waiting. Inuyasha snuck quick glances at each of them in turn as he fought the inevitable. Kagome's warm brown eyes, the slight plumpness on her face and body from carrying their children, the lines of laughter and grief etched around her eyes and mouth. Akisame, young and thin as Kagome had been, covered in stringy muscle and bristling with energy and power. Her golden gaze burned brightly, defiantly, even on the night of the new moon. And Koinu, his firstborn, sitting across from him, was like looking into a mirror as well as through time. The same long, flowing black hair, a few recognizable features of his own mixed with Kagome's softer, gentler traits. 

His mouth quirked downward as a burning, fluttering sensation started in his chest. It might've been heartburn from the fatty fish-flavored Ramen, but Inuyasha knew better. It was an emotion, powerful and overwhelming, that had threatened him before. When Kagome, Miroku, and Sango had all almost died of poison once during their Shard hunting days. When Kagome and Koinu as a baby had faced the crazy female ruler Taikokajin and the possessive evil spirit of Garou. When Sesshomaru had snatched Koinu as a young child and almost smothered him…

Inuyasha blinked ferociously as his eyes started to sting. He glared between Kagome and Akisame. "I'm not _fuckin letting you go!"_

"So you'd let Sango and Kasai fight and probably die alone because you think Mom and I can't take care of ourselves?" Akisame demanded, shouting. Her hands fisted up in her lap, her golden eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm not a fucking baby! I could take care of myself_and_ Mom!"

Kagome laid a hand on Akisame's shoulder and made a small shushing sound. "Akisame, that's enough."

Akisame shrugged her mother's hand off and continued shouting, "You're going to let him control us, Mom? You're going to f—"

Koinu raised his voice above Akisame's, directing his words at Inuyasha pointedly. "It isn't about controlling us, is it Father?"

Inuyasha shifted uneasily and scoffed, "You know if they go they'll just get kidnapped…"

"You're worried about something happening to us," Koinu inferred, his voice dropping into a passive, calming tone, "so why don't you just come with us? Stretch your legs, do some traveling. What do you think Father?"

"Feh," Inuyasha grunted, "As if I wouldn't go!" he paused and then blinked, frowning. "But this demon hypnotizes men…" he stammered, suddenly sagging as if he'd been filled to max capacity of hot air and now the pressure had started a hole, letting all of the air escape explosively outwards, decompressing. "I won't be able to protect any of you."

Akisame sat back, as if she too were decompressing. She stared at her father with a deep, pensive expression covering her face, biting her lower lip as she watched him. Koinu and Kagome had demonstrated their_understanding_ of the hanyou while Akisame had failed, bristling impatiently under what she perceived as her father's stranglehold of control and power. It was true, Inuyasha enjoyed power and control, but there was more to him than that. By manipulating the deeper, hidden emotions Inuyasha possessed, Koinu and Kagome could reach through to him, Akisame could not. 

She bit the inside of her cheek, thinking furiously. 

Kagome sighed again, staring concernedly, full of caring, at her husband. "We all want to help Sango, we have to go Inuyasha." She smiled wanly and went on in a hurried voice, "As I remember most youkai have more weaknesses than they at first _appear_ to. I think we may discover that this whale youkai cannot control hanyou perhaps. It might only be able to attack one or two men at a time. With all of us together we stand a great chance of defeating it, no matter what gender we are."

"Tisoki told me that the lord of Gakemachi doesn't know if it can attack male demons at all. It's possible that the whale youkai is limited to human men entirely," Koinu put in, hopefully. 

"Feh," Inuyasha frowned unhappily, crossing his arms over his chest again. "I doubt it."

"But we have to go," Akisame growled, under her breath. 

Inuyasha glared at her, still angry with her for her original, bitter outburst. He bit out, "That damned youkai isn't _my_ problem. _My _problem is _my family._" 

Kagome reached across the table, stretching her still-limber body over the distance to just barely touch her husband's crossed arms, trying to drag his hand out to hold it, to connect with him. "Inuyasha, sometimes you have to trust in us. I survived on my own sometimes, didn't I? You can rely on our strength…"

Inuyasha stared her in the eye blankly. The silence dragged on. Koinu, Kagome, and Akisame were all arrayed on the opposite side of the table, as if allied against him. Inuyasha felt like a rock trying to swim, with no arms and no legs, and with his own massive weight pulling him down, he could never resist. He was drowning already, the light above, the surety of his family, was gone, out of his reach. 

What had happened to his night of the new moon, alone, with his mischievous plans for his wife? For the next baby?

He pinched his lips together tightly. "We'll leave tomorrow."

* * *

The elder of the village greeted the slayers stiffly but with gratitude, thanking them incessantly. The largest hut in the village, used for storing, cooking, treating, and processing fish and other seafood, was also used as a temporary boardinghouse for the slayers. The elder apologized for the poor accommodation and ordered a few fishermen's wives and daughters to clean the hut, cook for their visitors, and donate bedding. 

As soon as he left to fetch the survivors that still resided in the village, Sango stepped out of the dark, stuffy heat of the hut and vomited violently. Her children gawked, surprised by the suddenness of her illness. One moment ago she'd spoken to the elder stiffly but efficiently and thanked him for accommodating their sudden arrival. Now she was doubled over, throwing up into the rough, sharp, tufted grass and beach sand. 

Masuyo and Kasai stepped in to flank her. Kasai held her mother's hair; Masuyo hovered, growing steadily paler with each of Sango's heaves. Kohimu and Tisoki moved stiffly by her and into the hut where they began to set up equipment and clean. The smell of the hut was overpowering, rich with fish oils and the stink of salt from the sea. They covered their noses when they moved the baskets and barrels of food through the hut. Salt-preserved fish, crabs, squid, clams, oysters, kelp, and sea mammal meat. The smell would never be eradicated, or even controlled inside the tent, but they would try. 

"Mother?" Masuyo asked Sango in a high, worried voice. It remained the voice of a boy, frightened for his mother, one of the single most important people in his life. "Are you all right?"

Sango gasped, her eyes closed, and cautiously stood up straight. She brought her hand to her forehead, as if searching for a fever or trying to keep her head from spinning. "It's passed for now, Masuyo. I'm okay. Thank you, Kasai."

Though Sango wouldn't see it, Kasai nodded in response and then quickly stepped forward, kicking sand and grass over Sango's splattered puddle of vomit to hide the illness. 

"Do you need to get out of the sun?" Masuyo asked, shadowing Sango as she started to walk unsteadily away from the hut and the terrible stink of fish inside it. 

"No, I'll be fine." She wiped her mouth and swallowed thickly, grimacing. Kasai stayed at her side, silent and wearing a tight, uncomfortable expression. 

The elder approached, making his way hurriedly through the sand. His straw sandals kicked up beach sand behind him. Three people were following him at a slight distance. A man and a woman guiding a third man that was slumped between them. 

The elder bowed to Sango, Kasai, and Masuyo, murmuring traditional greetings again as if he'd been gone for an extended period of time. "I have brought with me the survivor I feel would be of the most use to you. He was taken by the beast in the sea about four years ago, when the attacks first began. His brother was taken in the same night, but he has never returned to us. He has recovered much since we first found him…" the elder stumbled and looked away from Sango almost ashamedly. The story embarrassed him—its details weren't his own but the survivor's. He stepped backward, making way for the three people behind him. 

The man and woman supporting the third, an old man with only a few tufts of white hair left around his ears, were middle aged. They acted as crutches for the old man, the survivor, as well as cattle prods. When the old survivor tried to stop and shuffle back the way he'd come, the man and the woman stopped him and turned him to face Sango again each time. They mumbled apologies weakly and averted their eyes, staring at the ground. They too were ashamed. 

"Sir," Sango addressed the survivor with respect and was rewarded when the old man glanced up, meeting her eye. "I am most sorry for calling you out of the comfort of your home, but I have a few questions I would like to ask you. I apologize; they are questions you may find difficult to think about."

The old man's lips and face were heavily wrinkled. He moved his lips to speak, flexing each of those wrinkles. "Fine lady you are…" he smiled, showing crooked, cracked teeth. His words were slurred and thick, as if he were drunk. 

The elder interjected bowing apologetically. "My lady, he cannot hear you very well. Since the incident he has been rendered almost completely deaf. If you ask your questions very slowly and with simple words, he may answer them."

"Are his answers reliable?" Kasai asked. 

"At first no, but over the last year he has begun to come back into his own mind."

Sango took a step closer to the man; her face was grim and tight. She tried again, speaking very carefully, moving her lips exaggeratedly, "Sir, please—tell me about the monster that took you four years ago."

The man watched her, his mouth hanging slightly open. As her lips moved, his eyes, dulled with his advanced age, flicked around her face, focusing on her lips. Slowly his expression changed as he caught her question. The word _monster_ made him grunt and pull briefly against the hold of the man and woman on either side of him. His nostrils flared, he shook his head. 

"Iruka?" he asked, his voice thick and slurred still, barely understandable. 

Uncertainly, Sango nodded, "Yes, the monster in the sea."

The muscles underneath the man's baggy eyes quivered. He made a moaning sound deep in his throat. "Brother…"

"Sir, I am demon slayer," she gestured to herself, making sure she had his attention, "I will avenge your brother."

The man's chin wrinkled, the sound in his throat changed to a sort of gasp as a dry sob escaped his throat. "Brother…"

"For your brother," Sango intoned, speaking laboriously slow, "you must tell me what happened to you."

"I don't speak well." He informed her, thickly, blinking as if there were sand in his eyes. His head drooped for a moment dejectedly before he went on. "She took my ears from me." He choked, stricken with grief, his shoulders wobbled. "She took…"

Sango shook her head with frustration and looked toward the elder and the man and woman keeping the survivor standing upright and in one place like a prisoner. "I don't want to hurt him any further by forcing him to remember. I need him to tell me _what happened_ when the demon took him. What was he doing? Where was he?"

The elder answered her quickly, "He and his brother were fishing in the shallow waters offshore at dusk when the attack occurred. That is all we know. My lady," he looked mournfully at her and gestured at Masuyo and at Kohimu and Tisoki who'd reemerged from inside the smelly hut. "Your sons will do no better here. We have lost _thirty_ men and boys to this beast in four years. We cannot fish beyond the afternoon for fear that she will take one of us…"

"Has the demon taken any women?" Tisoki asked from behind.

The elder shook his head, "No, she only takes men and some boys. Lately it has been boys. Never a woman."

"And other demons…?" Kasai ventured, faintly as if afraid to hear the answer. 

The elder shook his head, "I do not know."

Sango spoke again, addressing the survivor in the same, slow, careful way. "Tell me what Iruka looks like."

The old man shuddered, his entire body convulsing with fear. "A ningyo…"

Frowning slightly, Sango shook her head, "Describe the ningyo to me—please sir, for your brother. How big was she?"

"White," the old man stuttered, spitting a little, "white below us in the nets. A white porpoise. A white woman…" he squeezed his eyes tightly shut and little tears peeked out, rolling down his dusty, wrinkled cheeks. "…teeth! Her teeth…!"

The man doubled over, beginning to sob. He fought his holders with strength that he seemingly shouldn't have possessed and broke free, stumbling onto the beach sand. He rocked back and forth pathetically, mumbling incoherently to himself. 

Sango stared down at him, her expression troubled and heavy. "I'm sorry." She glanced toward the elder somberly and said, "When we kill this demon we will leave a token of its carcass for you. Demon bones are valuable in trade. If the meat is edible we will give it to you as well—"

The elder raised his hands, shaking his head fiercely as he interrupted. "No! Please no, do not give us the meat!" he stopped, as if alarmed with his own outburst and apologized ashamedly. "We wish only that you kill her and quickly. We will pray for your safety."

The elder bowed and motioned for the old man and his holders to leave as well, bidding the slayers a quick goodbye. As they left Sango felt her stomach roll over, flipping and twisting inside her body with a fresh bout of nausea. _Of course they don't want the flesh of this beast,_ she realized, _it's eating their own. Eating the beast would be like eating their own kin. _

"Mother?" Kasai called, hesitantly. 

Without turning to look at her, Sango answered, "What is it?"

"Maybe…" Kasai stuttered, almost falling into silence, "…this is too big for us. Maybe we should go back to the village and—"

Sango clucked her tongue, shushing Kasai. "We've given our word to these people and to Lord Kishokachi. If we delay our good name will be tarnished and more innocent people will die."

"But—Masuyo, Tisoki and…"

"You can't live in fear, Kasai." Sango turned to face her daughter, scowling unhappily, almost with anger, "None of my children are cowards. None of my children will run away from a challenge."

Kasai's face colored, flushing bright red under Sango's intense gaze. "I'm just…" she closed her eyes, frowning ashamedly. She had never fought with only her mother at her side, one of her brothers had always been there to partner with her or cover her during a battle. Little more than a night ago she'd fought with Koinu and felt as if she had all the power in the world. Now she felt foolish, like the cricket that cheeps when the predator is near and is soon swallowed whole. More than fear for herself was the worry for her mother—Sango's sudden illness was bizarre and puzzled her—and especially for her brothers. 

"I'm not scared!" Masuyo piped up, rushing forward and boyishly throwing his arms around Sango's waist. "I'll help! I'll help no matter what kind of youkai it is, no matter what she does to people!"

Kasai scowled at him and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her back on her mother and little brother. For a time she watched Tisoki and Kohimu moving about the hut. The flaps over the windows and doors had been opened wide, letting her see within. Their shadows moved about, she heard Kohimu say something snide and Tisoki laugh appreciatively.

She took a step forward to help them but stopped when the wind picked up, cool and sweet from the sea. It blew through her hair, picking at the dark, straight black strands of it. Kasai shuddered, frowning deeply at it. How many demon slayers had already fought with the beast in the sea and lost their lives? How many men and boys and demons had the creature consumed? Would it add her brothers' names to its long list, enchanting them as they slept in the stinky hut that very night? 

Abruptly cold, Kasai pushed her thoughts away and turned from the stinky hut and for the little fishing village instead. Fishermen were bound to be strong and attractive, carved by the wind and sea. She would walk through their village and admire them as they hauled in their catches, shirtless.

* * *

A/N: On Tuesday, March 11 my boyfriend took me out between classes and we checked into a local jewelry store. We spent almost a whole hour getting a spiel about diamonds and picking out possible rings. The one I ended up picking was gold with five diamonds set into it, a flat sort of band. I felt so weird sitting there because they put the rings in front of me and just ignored my boyfriend. I started to get that this whole wedding stuff is about me, Me, ME and not him. But I picked a cheap one, with its on sale price coming to like 799. Amazing! We didn't buy it yet; my boyfriend will come back and do that another day, secretly. He plans to get it custom made. An engagement ring with three diamonds in that design, a marriage band with five. The funniest part was that my ring size they measured there, it was the smallest that they'd ever seen at 3 and ¾. Most people wear a 5 or a 6 or something. And now my boyfriend is sleeping after spending all night in the hospital after heart attack symptoms on my birthday. Wow, this fine world of ours. 


	9. A Diamond is Forever

A/N: So I'm engaged almost officially now…? And my ring size is 3 and three-quarters. Three-fourths of the way through my second Junior semester. Woot! I had to educate myself some more on Tetsusaiga's attacks. So everyone knows the wind scar, and I guess there's a "red Tetsusaiga" too that breaks barriers (just not Naraku's). Then there's the diamond attack which I heard of in a story (or was this a real episode?? I can't remember) where IY breaks Kagome's new bike and then, when he can't fix it, decides to make a diamond for her instead…? Somehow I think I'm mixing up a fan fiction with a real episode. I can't remember, but that was how I heard about it first, so I had to go through an episode summary to find the proper name, and I think it was: Kongosoha. Right?

Knowing the Tetsusaiga and its endless add-ons (like a Facebook page has its Applications ugh) I'm sure there have been further advancements in the manga. I only know as far as the diamond one though.

Disclaimer: I don't own them really I only wish I did.

Last Chapter: Koinu returned home to convince Inuyasha to let everyone come and help Sango. Aki got angry because she felt that IY was simply trying to control them when in reality IY is motivated more by the knowledge that this youkai could entrance him and he wouldn't be able to save his wife and daughter if something went wrong. Sango, Kasai, Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo reached the village of Seizansha where a survivor met with Sango and the others to describe his encounter. Kasai expressed doubt and Sango shot her down.

* * *

**A Diamond is Forever**

Traveling was, in some ways, always going to be the same as it was some twenty or more years ago when Inuyasha and Kagome had searched for Jewel Shards with Miroku and Sango. There was always the dust of the road, the thorns that occasionally stuck someone in the foot, or an uncomfortable rock. There was always the disagreement on pace and when to stop to rest, when to eat, and when to call it a day and sleep. The heavy pull of supplies on Kagome's back hadn't changed, though her tolerance and endurance of it had. Inuyasha still led the way most of the time, and he still wore the red Fire Rat robes while traveling. Tetsusaiga still rocked against his hip with each step like a stiff, lame third leg stretching for the ground but never touching it. As far as Inuyasha was concerned, the passage of twenty years had done nothing to change the threat level of the world.

However, many things had changed forever. Now Inuyasha called for speed reductions to favor Kagome, even when she said she could walk faster or longer while Akisame whined about being held behind. She begged to charge ahead and scout with Shippo. Inuyasha repeatedly told her no until they reached a shouting match that drove Koinu and Kagome into walking together, trying to shield their ears.

Finally in the thick humid evening, Inuyasha sent Koinu and Akisame to find Shippo. The fox kit's contribution as scout was one major change that twenty years wrought. Shippo had been a poor journeyer when the troupe searched for Jewel Shards: tiny legs that struggled to get him anywhere, a long bushy tail that could trip him if he wasn't careful, and an overwhelming fear of predators or enemies that might cut his life short. Now Shippo was an invaluable contributor, practicing his new powers to help the group on the journey. The audacious, troublemaking spirit of the kitsune had at last reached him in full.

Alone with Kagome, the hanyou struggled to talk with her about the new moon, of his currently bungled plans for having another baby. It was difficult, even after years of marriage and parenthood for Inuyasha to overcome his natural embarrassment of the topic. It was so much easier to speak with her frankly when they were in the privacy of their bedroom, in the darkness, when arousal could make him speak frankly, with boldness, marching straight to the point.

He tried to do it then, blurting out, "What do you think about babies?"

Kagome's steady walking rhythm faltered for a moment as she turned to stare at her husband, startled, "What? What do you mean?"

Already Inuyasha felt the heat spilling over his cheeks and fought it, scoffing, "Feh, you know, babies…"

He wanted to draw a gushing, nostalgic reaction out of her, to test her willingness to have another child. Raising their children was always a hard endeavor, as was raising any baby, but for them in particular it was a trial of thinning patience. While Kagome was pregnant Inuyasha would hover incessantly, smothering her with his worry—which manifested itself in a sort of crotchety, unending nagging. Kagome would dread the birth and the decision of _where_ to give birth to her child. Koinu had been born in the Feudal era, which was nerve wracking for her, but it had the privacy she needed for having a baby that might have _dog ears._ Akisame had been born in the modern era, in the strange, cold comfort of a hospital.

"What about babies?" Kagome asked him, eyeing her husband critically, searching for something.

Inuyasha frowned and nervously looked away, to the dirt, to the sky, to the trees, to the road ahead—anywhere but at Kagome. He wiped his forearm across his temples, puffing at the heat and humidity of the evening. "Why does it have to be so fucking hot when we walk?"

Kagome smirked amusedly, "That was obvious, Inuyasha."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Changing the subject," Kagome chuckled and then grasped his sleeve and arm encouragingly, "Why are you so nervous?"

"I am not!" He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to take the lead by a few steps.

Kagome picked up her pace to meet his, staying even with him. "Why are you asking me about babies?"

Twenty years ago Inuyasha would've snapped at her again and told her that she was nagging him. Then the name calling would begin until she punished him. Time had made him gentler in this way. He trusted Kagome to listen to him and take him seriously. It was better to tell her what was on his mind than to hide it from her and have her nag and whine at him for the secret-keeping.

He sighed and worked his shoulders for a moment, fighting the desire to tense up protectively like a clam closing its shell. "Like when Koinu and Aki were small," he stammered, ears flattening, "do you miss it?"

She sighed at his side and stared at the road ahead. Inuyasha watched her avidly, examining her face for any further, hidden truths. "Well," she began cautiously, "I do miss it a little. I miss being able to hold them," her face softened, her eyes grew moist, "I miss the way they used to get a long without bickering…"

"We could have another," Inuyasha blurted quickly and then faced forward again, trying to hide the importance of those four words, and how much her answer, one way or another, would mean to him.

"I don't want to end up like Sango!" Kagome laughed nervously, "In my era two children is completely normal. In some countries there are laws against having more than one baby! And in others the government will _pay_ people to have babies because most couples won't…"

She stopped talking when she caught the way Inuyasha was staring at her with a mixture of pain, incredulity, and confusion. Uncertainly, Kagome cleared her throat and fell silent, as if they hadn't been talking at all, merely walking side by side peacefully, in an utter state of contentment.

"So…" Inuyasha's voice was a low, thick mumble, "…you don't want to…"

Abruptly Kagome blinked as she watched her husband and listened to him, realizing by his voice and his expression that Inuyasha was _asking_ her to have another baby, or rather he was gauging her reaction. She frowned, putting the realization into her mind in its fresh context and came up empty.

"I didn't say that!" She stammered hurriedly, trying to squash any feelings of rejection inside Inuyasha, "You remember when Akisame was a baby and a toddler. She was such a handful! We couldn't do anything or go anywhere. She was always fussing! I remember you _hated_ babysitting her…"

Inuyasha's ears flattened immediately, his golden eyes narrowed. "It wasn't all like that!"

"Yes it was," Kagome insisted, frowning at him, "and the dirty linens, the diapers, the tantrums, going into labor…" she bit her lips and groaned in remembrance.

The hanyou spluttered, helplessly caught between Kagome's recollections and his own fresh, overpowering need to return to those simpler times, to start anew…

"Things are still so complicated," Kagome went on, sighing, "Koinu feels inadequate, Akisame swears like a sailor—our job isn't even close to being over, Inuyasha."

"It wasn't all bad!" Inuyasha shouted angrily, glaring at her now at last, "You remember Koinu's first word? What about," he lowered his voice and his face colored as he continued, "nursing them? I remember you liked that a lot…"

Kagome blinked, her step faltering again as she considered his words. "Yes, but when they started teething…"

"That wasn't even bad!" Inuyasha snapped, correcting her, "You told them not to bite and they didn't."

Kagome sighed heavily, giving in, "That's true."

"Why are you—why don't you want…" Inuyasha frowned and swallowed the words when movements ahead of them on the road caught his eye. Shippo, Akisame, and Koinu had appeared in the road some distance ahead.

"Inuyasha!" Shippo shouted, waving his arms for a moment. Beside Koinu and Akisame the kit was boyish, only as tall as Akisame though on closer inspection it could be found that Shippo was plumper and a hair's breadth shorter than Akisame.

The hanyou was about to lift his voice to shout back at Shippo when the kit appeared directly in front of him in a rush of thin, scentless smoke. Inuyasha scrambled backward for a second, alarmed and trying not to collide with Shippo. "Dammit! Do you have to do that Shippo?"

The kit dusted himself off fastidiously. "Yep, I do. But sorry for almost running into you." He moved hurriedly onto the point, "There's a village up ahead a ways. Koinu and I already negotiated a room for the night."

"How did you pay for it?" Kagome asked, perplexed.

Shippo smiled mischievously, "We're traveling with a legend, Kagome," the kit flicked his eyes teasingly toward Inuyasha; "they saw Koinu and thought he was Inuyasha. They'll let us have a room for the night if Inuyasha can make them a few diamonds with Tetsusaiga."

The hanyou growled irritably, "Shippo! I ain't gonna do it!"

"Why not?" Shippo queried, his tail flicking like a chipmunk's as he spoke, clearing out some of the dust from the road like a broom, "They love you!"

"I ain't gonna have a whole village of morons gawking at me and pulling my ears and…" he fell silent, snarling quietly.

"You could have Koinu do it—they won't know the difference," Shippo suggested, slyly.

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippo watched Koinu and Akisame where they were standing in the distance, silhouetted by the dropping, orange light of the sun. Akisame punched Koinu in the shoulder as they watched and Koinu took a step away from her, laughing.

"He doesn't know how to do it." Inuyasha growled defeatedly, sighing.

"You could teach him and pay the villagers at the same time," Shippo pushed.

Kagome nodded, "Shippo's right, Inuyasha. Use this as an excuse to teach Koinu." She pinned him with a meaningful glare, scolding him silently as she added, "You should've done this a long time ago. You weren't far from his age when you learned how to do it yourself."

"Like hell!" He snapped, "I was _a lot _older than he is!"

Shippo smirked, "No you weren't—the fifty years pinned to the God Tree doesn't count."

"I was _older_!" Inuyasha snarled, "I was older than Koinu when that happened!"

"It's worth a try," Kagome said, coaxingly.

"Fine," Inuyasha growled, sulking.

* * *

It was in the depths of the moonless night in the smelly hut in the fishing village of Seizansha—miles away on the same night Koinu, Kagome, and Akisame were arguing with Inuyasha to ensure that they could leave to help the demon slayers—when Tisoki began to dream, vividly.

He had seen the ocean before a few years ago while on a mission with his father. The sea, when he'd seen it, was cold and desolate. The bay was frozen thickly with ugly, gray ice. Further out he could see the ocean, gray like slate. The smell was lost in his memory, buried by the ghost exorcism that took place instead. In Seizansha the sea was much more prominent because it was summertime. The water had been clear and blue during the daytime, the waves rolled in with enormous energy and noise, rushing and roaring against rocks and sand. Further out in the fertile shallows, the water lost its rich blue and became turquoise, almost green.

(A/N: I'm going to admit that I've never seen the ocean here, but I live 30 miles from the largest body of Freshwater in the US, Lake Superior, which is cold, beautiful, clear, and deep. Even in 96 degrees 100 percent humidity, hop into that "Lake" and it's bone-numbingly cold…I've done it! It steals your breath away!)

In Tisoki's dream, he saw the sea, not in the daylight, but in the darkness after nightfall. He felt the sand beneath his toes, the prickling of rocks and the grit of the smoother sand. When the water lapped at his toes it was surprisingly cold, setting his feet into a deep aching on contact. As hot and humid as it was during the daytime, the ocean was barely affected. In warmer climates further south, even the sea warmed against the sun's continuous touch. But here, in the north, the ocean was a stubborn beast. It stayed cold, unaffected on the surface by the sun.

Tisoki sloshed through the water, adjusting gradually to the aching chill. The waves sucked at his feet, pulled at the skin and hair on his bare legs. An energetic wave reached up a little too high and startled him, making his body tighten and gooseflesh break out over his torso.

Out in the waves, something moved. It was bright, like a large white rock—but rocks don't swim.

Years ago, when Tisoki had seen the sea in the wintertime, he'd seen a few ink paintings of sea creatures and monsters. Miroku, who was continually interested in educating himself in everything like the intellectual he liked to imagine himself to be, took time examining the images and asking the painters what they knew about monsters and animals that lived in the sea. There were stories of fish that could swallow humans whole, and others who would tear chunks out of hapless swimmers. There were mermaids—ninyo to the Japanese—there were any number of bizarre monsters that ate or enchanted humans.

Tisoki had examined the ink paintings too. He'd never seen a whale or a dolphin, but the artists and fisherman described the animals as fish-like, except that they were more easily spotted than fish because they enjoyed coming to the surface and spraying water out holes in the tops of their heads. Also, unlike most fish, they were _huge._

Many legends centered around whales or dolphins would compare them to people, attributing intelligence. In Greece mythology told of a crew of sailors that was cast into the sea for defying the gods and turned into dolphins. It was the duty of dolphins, as atonement for their defiance, to push drowning sailors toward the shore to save them. But fascination was also capable of drawing out its darker cousin—fear and superstition.

Tisoki watched as the shape moved under the water, twenty feet out from the shore. It was smooth, seemingly unaffected by the pull and push of the waves. Its shape was unclear, masked by the water like a carnival funhouse mirror distorts reflections. At first it appeared as uninterested in Tisoki's wading, but after a time the creature moved closer, strafing back and forth. Tisoki watched it, stiff with uncertainty, but somehow unable to move.

The creature, white like fresh snowfall, surged abruptly forward, rushing with the approach of one strong wave. It was three feet from him when it slowed. The wave moved beyond the white creature, pushing and surging against Tisoki's calves and knees. With the creature at last so close and with the wave rushing past both of them toward the shore, creating a shallow dip, Tisoki was actually able to see part of the creature's back exposed above the water.

It was elongated, about five feet long, but its body was round. There were two triangular flippers like paddles at its front. At the end the creature lifted a horizontal tail, flat—the opposite setup of a fish's. It had a long snout with a bulbous forehead. Its eyes were dark spots set at the corners of its mouth.

Tisoki gasped and tried to back away, but his feet resisted the call of his brain. He stared, wide eyed, at the white beast before him.

It lifted its head and, in the same motion, a dark hole opened at the top of its head, whooshing with wetness and air, splattering Tisoki in the face. He fell backward, crying out as his rear splashed down in the seawater.

The creature parted its long, toothy snout—it didn't have lips technically—and splashed with its tail as another wave rushed around its body, pushing it forward. Tisoki covered his head with his arms, bracing himself for the impact, but it wasn't the freezing touch of a fish that smashed into him, but a smooth, hot body instead.

Tisoki blinked unsteadily and found himself staring into a human face. Her eyes were black as ink or tar and they gleamed even in the low light of the night, the ocean, and the surf. Her body weight was considerable, a tangible weight pressing into his chest, onto his stomach, groin, and legs. Her hair flowed long and free in the rise and fall of the waves as they died on the beach sand.

As in any bizarre dream, Tisoki felt confusion first and then, abruptly, desire and lust. The monster had transformed into the beautiful, naked woman. That was completely natural. His body responded; heat swelled between his legs.

The woman opened her mouth and sound came out, high-pitched, grating on his ears. Tisoki winced and shook his head, trying to escape it. In the same moment he saw her teeth, white and uniform, each the same size as the next, conical and with equal spaces between each. Horror swept through Tisoki then, setting his heart into a flutter.

The screeching grew louder and shriller until—

Tisoki jerked awake, gasping and covered in sweat. His mouth pulled greedily on the moist, humid air inside the smelly fish hut.

Kohimu and Masuyo slept on either side of him, fitfully. The thickness of the air and the remaining heat from the daytime had equaled a very restless sleep for all of the slayers. It was probably more comfortable outside of the hut, but because of their gender and the closeness of the sea, Tisoki and his brothers were condemned to sleep on their mats in the reeking hut.

Kasai and Sango had taken up position sleeping in the wooden entryways beside the beach sand, under the stars. If Tisoki, Kohimu, or Masuyo rose in the night mysteriously Kasai or Sango would waken as well and accompany them to make sure that their brothers or sons didn't join the names of the dead village men.

Tisoki hauled himself up from the floor and walked out the hut flap on the end where he knew Kasai was keeping watch. The sweat covering his body made him shiver as he stepped outside and met the chilled breeze flowing off the sea. The smell of the salt oozed in as well, somehow disturbing as well as enchanting.

Kasai was curled into a ball on the hard wood directly outside the flap, covered by thin blankets from the night. As Tisoki moved by her she stirred, blinking her violet eyes against the darkness. Tisoki couldn't be sure how she knew which of her brothers it was, but somehow Kasai yawned and called his name, "Tisoki? What are you doing? Where are you going?"

"I had a weird dream, so I got up for some air." He moved onto the sand and picked up his sandals, sliding them on easily. "The survivor really…" he frowned and shook his head, searching for the correct word, "…disturbed me I guess."

"He was insane," Kasai muttered, sitting up slowly, "of course he disturbed you."

"No it isn't that," Tisoki sat awkwardly on Kasai's blanket and ran a hand through his hair, "He lost his brother to this thing. And this place has lost so many men to it, I just want to help them, but I can't because I'm a man. Just another meal to this youkai."

"Hanyou," Kasai corrected him, shifting uneasily.

"Hanyou," Tisoki agreed, glaring at her briefly. The expression was lost in the darkness. For a time they sat in silence, and then Tisoki laughed and said, "I half expected you to be gone, Kasai. Out looking for some pretty little village boy to flirt with…"

Kasai whipped around to stare at him, inhaling sharply, "You think I'd just get up and _leave my family?"_

Tisoki gave a weak, pacifying gesture, "I'm just teasing you."

His sister hugged herself and stared off into the darkness, facing the sea. With the lack of moonlight it was black, an invisible, menacing presence that roared and hissed as the waves flowed into the shore. It was so loud that it consumed the silence between the siblings and dominated their words, making them raise their voices above it to be heard. Yet, for as powerful as it was, the sea was invisible in the night. Only the occasional glint or flash of movement betrayed it.

"Kasai?" Tisoki asked, leaning forward, trying to see into his sister's face though the light was so weak that it was an impossible task, "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said.

Tisoki fell silent, watching her. What he could see was limited, a block of black shadow. "You're lying, something's up. Was it that stupid thing I said about you chasing boys?"

"I said I was fine, Tisoki," she snapped, "go back inside and sleep or I'll wake up Mom."

He sighed and ran his hands through his shaggy, loose hair, worn short as their father's had been during his days as a Shard hunter trailing Naraku. "Fine, have it your way." Tisoki hauled himself up to his feet and pushed aside the flap over the door to the hut, going back inside the humid, thick night heat.

It was suffocating outside, but Kasai was being difficult, more difficult than he wanted to deal with in that moment, with his dream still so near, haunting him. Tisoki slipped into his spot between his lightly snoring brothers. Masuyo murmured in his sleep and nestled closer to Tisoki, apparently unaware of the sticky heat while he was in the depths of sleep. Kohimu had rolled onto his side and was twitching in the throes of a dream.

Tisoki wondered if Kohimu was having the same troubling dream that he'd had. And what about Kasai? Had she dreamt of the monster? Were any of them really safe from the beast in the sea?

* * *

As twilight closed over the little village where Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Koinu, and Akisame had decided to stay the night, a group of at least a hundred men, women, and children had gathered in a massive circle. The villagers gawked and squinted through the darkness as Inuyasha and Koinu stood together with an untransformed Tetsusaiga poking up out of the dirt like a branchless, leafless tree trunk. In the midst of the crowd, standing together collectively, Kagome, Shippo, and Akisame watched as well. Akisame held _Izoukago,_ Koinu's currently abandoned sword.

"Take it," Inuyasha ordered.

Koinu lunged and reached out, snatching the sword out of the dirt and lifting it above his head. As he made this motion Tetsusaiga glowed and enlarged to its full, deadly size. To impress Inuyasha, Koinu kept the fang-sword off the ground, supporting its weight with both hands.

"Clear a path!" Inuyasha bellowed at the crowd, waving his clawed hands at one side of their gawking, peasant audience. The circle changed shape, becoming a U-shape instead. With this done, Inuyasha faced his son again, his ears flattening and his posture stiffening as he became very serious. "Control it, Koinu. And _aim_ it. Don't kill anyone."

Koinu nodded, squaring his jaw. He lifted the sword and drew a deep breath, imagining his mother and Akisame in the distance, in danger, under threat. It was a simple wind-scar maneuver, a trick he'd been using for over a year…

"Wind Scar!" he shouted, whipping the Tetsusaiga through the air. A bolt of light-energy streamed away, arching through the dirt, tearing it up. Roots, clumps of mud and dirt, and a few desiccated plants flew up and out of its way only to be incinerated. As the villagers gasped and gawked and murmured chants of awe, Koinu lowered Tetsusaiga and grinned with open, beaming pride.

Inuyasha's expression had loosened and when he looked toward his son he smiled. There were moments when Inuyasha enjoyed basking in attention, though he would never admit to such a fact. Now appeared to be one of those moments. He gestured at Koinu and began his instruction, "We're going to try Kongosoha."

Koinu pointed his eyes straight ahead at the path that his Wind Scar had ripped through the dirt. He shifted his grip over the hilt and noticed how sweaty his palms were. His arms muscles jerked, quivering under Tetsusaiga's immense weight. As he listened for Inuyasha's instructions and guidance, Koinu felt a flash of panic when his father's sword rippled with light, trying to shrink.

Gritting his teeth, Koinu flicked the sword up and then sharply downward, trying to keep Tetsusaiga battle-ready. His white ears pressed against his hair, his eyes stung. The sword became too heavy for him and Koinu rested it in the dirt. Inuyasha had stopped talking, the silence of the crowd felt heavy on his shoulders.

The sunlight, setting in the west, had faded, hidden behind a wispy, rainless cloud—and suddenly Koinu growled, knowing the source of his problem and this latest failure. For him the closeness of the new moon continued to affect him before and after its passing. His transformations were random and unpredictable. This night was apparently one where he would lose his demonic powers for a second night.

Defeated, Koinu sighed and allowed the Tetsusaiga to condense into its dinged and dull katana form. "I can't do it tonight," he mumbled.

Inuyasha nodded, "It's fine, I'll take care of it." The hanyou stepped forward smoothly and ripped Tetsusaiga out of the ground, transforming it faster than Koinu ever could. The villagers turned their eyes swiftly from Koinu and toward the hanyou instead, aware that _he_ was the _real_ hero, Koinu was just a look-alike son.

As Inuyasha prepared to make the diamond strike, Koinu grimaced as his body warped with the loss of the sunlight. A few of the people closest to him were distracted by his transformation as well, staring wide-eyed as Koinu's ears shrank and lost their white coloration, shifting their spots onto the sides of his head. His hair flashed its brilliant white once, defiantly in the growing darkness, and then faded, becoming black like Kagome and Akisame's. In a moment, after the pain had gone and the transformation had completed, Koinu watched his father looking like any one of the human villagers, with the notable exception of his blue eyes which were unchanged.

The Kongosoha gave the villagers scores of small, clean, shining diamonds that they produced in trade for food or goods, increasing the wealth of their small village many times over. A single night's stay in return for Inuyasha's work was a bargain.

On their way out of the field where Inuyasha and Koinu had made their demonstration, Kagome walked purposefully close to her son. She tried to stroke his hair as they walked and, as if he failed to notice her affection, Koinu allowed it. His acceptance of such things was something that continued to astound Kagome. Who could've imagined that Inuyasha's son would be a gentle, sweet-natured puppy? If Kagome had tried to comfort Akisame in a similar way, stroking her daughter's hair, it was unlikely that Akisame would tolerate it at all.

"You did wonderfully," she smiled at him. Her hand continued its path from shoulder to hair, squeezing one and combing through the other. "Your father was very proud of you."

Koinu gave her a weak smile, "It was just poor timing, right?" When he looked her in the eye, Kagome could easily make out the frustration and sadness in his gentle blue eyes.

"You can't control the sun," she reassured him, patting his back.

At the same time Inuyasha arrived on Koinu's other side, his face set in a sour expression. "Damn Shippo and his ideas," he grumbled. His ears were flicking in every direction around him, self-consciously. The villagers that had had their fill of diamond collecting—and most of the children that were too young to understand the worth of shiny rocks—were trailing Inuyasha, Kagome, and Koinu, gawking innocently. Once, when a small boy came too close to Inuyasha, within five feet of him, the hanyou growled and made a mock motion as if to charge the child like a lumbering, enraged musk oxen. The boy squealed fearfully and darted away toward the crop fields. Inuyasha resumed his irritable, stiff-legged walk as soon as the boy was gone, though now his face was more smug than sour.

"Good job with the Tetsusaiga," Inuyasha said, speaking abruptly to Koinu as they reached the inn where they were to stay for the night. "Especially with the sun setting. These peasants don't understand that, ignore them."

Kagome smiled and slipped between Koinu and Inuyasha, touching both their shoulders as she passed, revealing her silent joy at having father and son interact in what was almost certainly a healing way. She joined Akisame and Shippo inside the warmly lit room with its blazing braziers. The door closed behind her, a fact that father and son both took note of. Kagome's desire for them to spend time together was transparent.

"Thank you," Koinu replied, bowing slightly, "Father."

Inuyasha could see well in the dark, far better than either of his children, especially beyond Koinu's ability now. It was unlikely that Koinu would see his father's bright, thoughtful expression, or the slightest hint of moisture in his eyes as his mind drifted through memories. He had seen Koinu grow over the years, always carrying his outward appearance, but struggling to come to terms with a personality that was vastly different from the father he idealized. In many ways Inuyasha could sympathize—he was nothing like Sesshomaru, and presumably nothing like their father though he longed to be. He wanted more for Koinu, something like the happiness that Inuyasha hadn't found until after Naraku had died and he'd taken Kagome as his lover at last. So far he was certain that he'd provided that happiness and stability to Koinu and Akisame, but Inuyasha wasn't happy as long as he felt that his children were unprepared for the hardships of life on their own.

Koinu's Wind Scar _had_ been impressive. Combined with the setting sun that caused his demonic powers—only half those of what Inuyasha possessed to begin with—and with his youth and lack of true battle experience, Koinu _had _impressed Inuyasha. Yet Inuyasha continued to worry, what if he wasn't able to protect his son? Could Koinu fight and survive alone? He shuddered to think of Akisame in a similar situation.

"When this is all over—Sango and this whale youkai I mean—I'll teach you the Kongosoha and red Tetsusaiga properly." He smirked, brightening even further, "We'll rip up all the hillsides in the village for them! Then they'll put in their fields and all that shit—everyone's happy." He grinned, liming the scenario more and more. "Sound good to you?"

Koinu nodded, also smiling widely, "Yes, Father. Will you teach Akisame too? She hasn't mastered the Wind Scar yet."

Inuyasha scowled, "Feh! She's too young."

"You expected me to learn when I was her age," Koinu said.

Inuyasha spluttered for a moment, irritated at the truth of his son's words. In his human form, Koinu was maddeningly close in appearance to Kagome. He had her long black hair with a slight wave in it. His eyes were blue, his face rounder and gentler than Inuyasha's though this could partly have been his youth, not his actual bone structure. He was a smidgen shorter than Inuyasha, but Koinu would probably break even at least with his father in height one day.

"I'll think about it, she can watch," he answered, grumbling. "Let's get inside, I smell food."

Koinu nodded and followed Inuyasha inside.

* * *

A bizarre, deep song ripped through Kasai's dreams.

Wrapped in her scratchy, thin blankets, sleeping outside the flap of the fish hut where her brothers were sleeping fitfully inside, Kasai jerked and flinched in her sleep. She moaned, turning her head, pressing it to the ground, trying to block out the song. Her dreams intensified, wrapping themselves around her brain. She saw a blue-gray world, and underwater landscape. Lithe, sleek shapes cut through the water, sending sprays of high-pitched whines, clicks, and snaps in her direction.

The world was deafening, maddening. She gripped the wood pallet that she was sleeping on, running her hands over the surface, picking up splinters as she did so.

Through the song, a cavernous voice began to speak, bellowing into Kasai's ears.

_Slayer, I am here to help you._

Kasai could not answer the voice; she was trapped in her dream world, under the sea water, skimming the waves herself. More of the fish-like creatures—dolphins and whales—swam around her, darting in close and then peeling away. Their sounds continued the song in its feverish pitch.

_You have come to kill the hanyou Iruka. I am Kujira, queen of the sea. Seeing your people kill the half breed would please me to no end. I can provide you with invaluable information. At noon on this day, walk the shoreline and I will beach myself to speak with you. You will not find the answers to your questions otherwise. I can tell you all that you need to know about killing the half breed Iruka. _

As suddenly as it had come, the song stopped and the blue, watery world vanished from inside Kasai's mind. She sat up, awake immediately, pulling on her long black hair, panting as if she'd been choked rather than deafened. In the same instant that she woke, Kasai also heard commotion inside the fish hut. Tisoki was crying out, shouting incoherently.

"What's going on?" Kohimu's voice demanded. Masuyo whimpered wordlessly.

There was more sound as Sango stirred and entered their hut, demanding the same thing as Kohimu. Tisoki began a stammered, blustered explanation, "I had a dream—this whale was talking to me—Kujira. She said she was a queen…"

Kasai got to her feet and lifted the flap, stepping into the fish hut as well. Her violet eyes were wide and dazed, a mirrored image of her older brother's. "I had the same dream. A whale named Kujira. She said I had to walk on the beach…"

Tisoki spoke at the same time, "…walk on the shore at noon and she would speak to me."

The slayer children, still sleepy and sluggish, gazed between one another and then turned their attention as one onto Sango, their ultimate decision maker. Sango sighed and crossed her arms over her disheveled night robe, frowning. "How do we know this isn't a trick?"

"We both dreamed it, Mom." Tisoki started, excitedly, gesturing at Kasai, "The same dream. And she told us to walk the beach during the day; the hanyou doesn't attack until nightfall or evening."

Sango shook her head, closing her eyes tiredly, "Demons will change their behavior when they perceive a threat. If this monster is able to invade our minds then it already knows we're here. We have to be on our guard at all times."

"But Mom," Kasai objected, "Tisoki and me are the only ones that have Dad's spiritual powers and we're the only ones that dreamed this. What if it isn't a trap?"

Sango's lips pinched into a thin, hard line. "We won't send Tisoki, he's vulnerable. I will go with you Kasai, but we won't give this Kujira very long, to be safe we're going to assume that it's an enemy, not an ally."

"I'll do it," Kasai agreed instantaneously, eager to escape the stink of the fish hut and even happier at the possibility of helping.

"Good," Sango nodded, seeming to deflate as the chance of immediate danger passed, despite her warning to her children about remaining on guard. "We should all get dressed now. There's a lot of work to do and—Tisoki, Kohimu, you should go to the village elder and ask him for something for us to eat for breakfast."

When her sons nodded and headed out of the hut at a jog, Sango followed them shakily. Masuyo and Kasai, sensing trouble, stepped outside with her. Even before they'd spotted her, Sango's retching sounds had given her away. Kasai and Masuyo joined her, holding her hair back.

Finally, after several mostly dry heaves, Sango straightened up and wiped disdainfully at her mouth. Her pale face was scrunched up with discomfort.

"Mother," Masuyo piped up, weakly, "Are you okay? Are you sick? Did you eat some bad meat?"

Kasai held her mother's arm, helping support her as they walked away from her little spot of vomit and as Sango sat down heavily, exhausted. "I'll be fine," Sango told them, trying to smile.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Momma?" Masuyo asked, lapsing into a child-like voice, filled with uncertainty and fear. If Sango was shaky and sick then there was something obviously wrong with the natural way of the world.

Sango shook her head, "No Masuyo, go help your brothers find breakfast. That will help me."

Masuyo nodded and hurried away, his bare feet kicking up the sand behind him.

Kasai stayed silently at her mother's side like a guardian or a watchdog. "You should get dressed, Kasai. I'll do the same in a moment," Sango told her, smiling reassuringly.

"Mom," Kasai started, uncertainly, "You're not all right, are you?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about, Kasai." Sango spoke firmly, using her tone rather than her words to actually order Kasai away from her.

Kasai hesitated, staring down at her mother. Sango would not meet her eye, but instead focused on the sea. It was turbulent on that new day. The sun had only just risen, gold-orange light colored the world, making it glow luminescently. There was a strong wind, ripping at the ocean, pulling the lines of waves that were cresting far out on the gray waters into whitecaps.

"Go on, before your brothers get back," Sango scolded, resolute and distant, like a death row inmate accepting his fate.

Silently Kasai turned away, frowning fiercely. She folded her arms over her chest and stared at her bare, dirty feet in the beach sand. The niggling suspicion stayed in her mind as she passed the small puddle of stomach acids that Sango had left behind. She diverted from her path to the smelly fish hut for a moment to kick sand and dirt over it. Then, unsatisfied, Kasai knelt and pulled a few clumps of saw grass out of the earth and piled them over the vomit as well. Pulling them up cut her palms, making them bleed slightly, but Kasai ignored the pain and wiped away the blood.

At the flap entrance to the fish hut, Kasai looked over her shoulder at her mother's wearied, slumped posture and the way she stared off at the horizon with a despairing, troubled expression…

_Mom, are you pregnant again? How are we supposed to do this without you?_ Kasai slipped into the darkness of the hut, frowning and praying silently that Koinu would bring Akisame and Kagome with him soon.

* * *


	10. Trapped in the Fish Hut

A/N: This is a long chapter! Ouch! For that I am sorry. Got my last Guardisil shot thing yesterday. That thing hurts like a mother! The needle is no big deal for me. I actually get excited by shots because I know they're good for my body. But Guardisil stings and burns and aches when the fluid gets in there. The nurse was nice to me and rubbed the spot, trying to spread out the vaccine liquid to make it hurt less. Might've worked. We had another snow day (Today as I write this is April 11, 2008) and we're still in the winter storm watch. The sky is overcast; an ugly yet enchanting gray with no features to speak of.

Disclaimer: Nope, no ownage.

Last Chapter: Sango, Kasai, Masuyo, Kohimu, and Tisoki are at the fishing village of Seizansha. Tisoki and Kasai dreamt the same dream of a whale that called herself "Kujira queen of the sea," and Sango was sick to her stomach again, worrying her two younger children Kasai and Masuyo. IY and Kagome discussed having another baby while traveling, they ended up bickering. IY paid for the group's overnight stay at a village by using Tetsusaiga to make diamonds. Koinu impressed him with a Wind Scar.

* * *

**Trapped in the Fish Hut**

When the sun reached its zenith, marking the noon hour, Sango arranged for her sons to have a babysitter of sorts—a middle-aged fisherman's housewife named Nomo. Nomo brought the slayers food prepared by the villagers and helped the boys prepare it while Sango and Kasai left to walk the beach. Kohimu complained quietly to Sango when he could pull her aside, trying to say that he didn't need a _babysitter._ It was true that he didn't, but Sango wasn't about to leave her sons unattended with a youkai lurking about just offshore that had a taste for men just their age. She left Nomo with instructions to watch over her sons and make sure they didn't leave the fish hut unexpectedly and without explanation.

She didn't anticipate being gone for longer than an hour.

The day had begun humid and partially cloudy. The horizon was blurred by the moisture in the air as Sango and Kasai patrolled the beach. A cliff rose out of the beach sand and made their trek difficult quickly. Kasai and Sango walked in the shallow, rocky ocean water at the base, peering up looming cliffs hundreds of feet up toward the dark swathe of forest there.

The sun began its gradual, achingly slow descent. The clouds thickened, preparing for a summer squall. There was some relief in this, the wind began to blow in over the ocean, bringing in cooler air and helping to dry the accumulating sweat on Sango and Kasai's bodies.

After half an hour of steady wading through the sucking, pulling surf, the moment arrived at last when Kasai looked out over the swelling waves and saw a gray, triangular shape surface and cut through the water. She halted, stumbling slightly in the surf, and jabbed her finger out at the sea. "Mom! Something's come!"

Sango stopped and turned to face the sea as well. The triangular fin swam parallel to the shore, like a guard patrolling a prison block. "Do you sense anything, Kasai?" Sango asked.

Kasai was silent, concentrating. Slowly she shook her head, "No, not yet."

"It might be just a fish then." Sango sighed, putting her hand to her forehead and wiping at the sweat there. The chill of the seawater around her calves was enticing. To keep their robes dry Sango and Kasai had hiked them up and tied them around their thighs, but the design was hardly working. The hems of their robes were wet and falling apart, too heavy when they were soaked to stay tied anyway. Sango stumbled forward to a large boulder and leaned into it while she tried to retie her robes to keep them out of the way.

Kasai hadn't taken her eyes away from the fin. As she watched the shape changed its direction and, timing its approach with a wave, surged forward, coming close to the shore. Kasai stumbled backward, shouting for her mother, "Mom! It's coming in!"

Sango instantly forgot her tying her robe and reached for the massive, heavy boomerang on her back. Her palms, sweaty and wet with seawater, slid over the bone uselessly on her first two grabs as the fin raced closer. Kasai had backed up against the looming cliff and its yellow and gray stone and dropped into a fighting stance that would do her no good without the proper footing. She had drawn out her sword _Burriko_ and held it battle-ready.

The triangular fin came within ten feet of them and stopped, veering away and halting. As the waves moved around it, swelling and withdrawing, rising and falling, the creature that belonged to the fin became clear to the two female slayers. It was a fish-like creature taller than a man. Its body was round and tubular, its snout short and curved upwards in a false smile. There were two more fins where, if it had been a land animal, it would've had front limbs. The animal turned on its side slightly, allowing Sango and Kasai to see that it had dark, inky black eyes. Its tail was flat, not sideways like a fish's.

"It must not be able to reach us this close to shore." Kasai suggested, dropping her battle-stance.

Sango narrowed her eyes, reaching a different conclusion. The beast in the water was still completely submerged, but it was close enough that Sango felt it was examining them just as much as they were watching it. It was not a mindless animal—if indeed it was _just_ an animal.

Abruptly then the animal flicked its tail and bobbed in the waves, thrusting the top of its head out of the water. Its forehead was bulbous and thick. When its head was clear of the roiling waves the creature blew out a short, loud spout of air. Sango and Kasai flinched as one, startled.

"What is it doing?" Kasai asked, perturbed.

"It's watching us," Sango told her, stiffly.

Rolling back beneath the waves, the animal moved in closer to the shore, making Sango and Kasai try to retreat further from it. The animal's approach was controlled and predictable. It used the swells of the incoming surf to propel its sizeable body forward into shallower and shallower water. At last it was within five feet of Sango and Kasai where they had pressed themselves against the rock face of the cliff. The animal was now exposed on the beach when the waves withdrew rhythmically. It opened its falsely smiling mouth, revealing uniform rows of white, conical teeth. The hole atop its head snapped open and it puffed out air again, loudly, making the slayers flinch for the second time.

"Are you Kujira?" Kasai shouted at the beast.

The creature slapped its tail, turning the retreating waves into white froth. When it spoke its voice was high and sharp, a chipmunk's squeak. "Yes."

"Tell us why you asked us to come here," Sango demanded, her hands were still wrapped around hiraikotsu, ready to use it.

The voice that Kujira spoke in was, quite possibly, the hardest one that Sango had ever had to listen to. She had never hunted a demon from the sea before and the animal-demon before her was like nothing she had ever come across before. The dolphin youkai lifted its head and opened its mouth, though no sound emerged from there—the noises it emitted came from its blowhole though to comfort the humans before her, Kujira and normal dolphins alike would imitate human speech by opening their mouths when they vocalized.

"I wish to help you kill Iruka."

Sango allowed herself to relax slightly, "Anything you could tell us would be of great help to us but—how do you want us to repay you for your help?"

Kujira snapped her jaws at them, clapping them loudly, "Kill Iruka. That is how you repay me."

"Why do you want to see her dead?" Kasai asked.

"She is a cursed one," Kujira squawked and chirped, "Bad blood. She kills whales, dolphins, porpoises too. Males. She drinks them. She takes men from your shores. She cannot make a calf. Bad blood."

"She drinks them?" Sango asked, repeating Kujira's words to make sure that she'd heard them correctly. "She feeds on their blood? Or does she feed on their souls?"

Kujira squealed and closed her black eyes, "Blood. She is always thirsty."

"Why just the men?" Kasai asked.

Kujira clapped her jaws at them again, growing agitated. "She cannot make a calf!"

"She wants to have a…child?" Sango inferred, cautiously.

"She cannot carry a calf because of her bad blood."

Sango drew a careful breath and repeated what she thought the dolphin youkai was telling them, "This Iruka is a half-demon. She kills whales and humans to drink their blood and…"

Kasai supplied the next words, "Rape them."

"…because she wants a calf?"

Kijira slapped her tail, her blowhole puffed open, startling the slayers again. "Yes. She is of a white skin. The sun burns her. She comes out only after the sun is gone." Kujira tilted her head, looking over the two humans in front of her. She made a sharp, buzzing sound and then snapped at them, "Your males must be protected from her voice. If they hear her voice she will eat them."

"Is there any way we can stop them from hearing her?" Sango asked. "To let them fight with us?"

Kujira squawked loudly at them, almost scolding them. "No."

"Kujira," Kasai interjected, "Can this Iruka attack male hanyou? Or what about…" she stammered, trying to find the right word, "_Shibunyou?"_

"Those words are strange." Kujira said, closing her eyes as if she were wincing against the faint sunlight, "My body is hot, my lungs heavy. I belong in the sea. I must go soon, but I will watch over your work."

"Wait Kujira," Kasai tried again, hurriedly, "A demon. Can she sing to a demon and eat him? And what about another half-demon like her? And _shibunyou_ is only one-fourth demon."

"I do not know." Kujira answered, lowering her head. She began splashing at the surf with her tail as the next wave swelled up around her. She pushed off with her front fins and let the wave carry her body into deeper water. A short ways out she surfaced, putting only her blowhole above the water, "Good luck! Goodbye!"

The triangular fin poked briefly out of the water as she dove into the surf and disappeared out to sea. Kasai and Sango stood still for a time, watching the waves, searching the water's surface for any further sign of the mysterious sea-youkai. There was none to be had.

Sango sighed, "It's too dangerous for us to let Koinu or Inuyasha help. It will have to be just the four of us, the women."

"Inuyasha won't like that." Kasai muttered, stating the obvious. She stared at her mother worriedly out of the corner of her eye, watching as Sango wiped her brow again. "Mom, are you all right?"

"I'm fine—but the sun is getting to me. Let's go back to the village."

* * *

As nightfall approached, Inuyasha grew impatient and decided that they would sprint the last, short leg of their journey. Gathering Kagome onto his back, and issuing orders to Shippo, Akisame, and Koinu, the group barreled for the coast where Koinu had said that Sango and her troupe could be found in the little village of Seizansha.

With Shippo and their children ranging ahead some distance, Inuyasha purposefully fell back and resumed the talk he'd had with Kagome the previous afternoon. Now that they'd attacked the subject once it was a lot easier for him to burst into it using anger to hide any soreness the topic caused him.

"What's your problem with babies, Kagome?" he demanded, randomly, out of the blue.

Kagome, with her arms wrapped around his neck, gaped at the back of his head in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"The only things you can remember about Koinu and Aki when they were little are all bad! What the hell is your problem? That isn't like you! So what's your problem with them?"

"I don't have a problem with them, Inuyasha!" Kagome defended herself, helplessly. "I just hadn't thought about having another one, I'm not sure I'd want to…"

"Well that ain't fair!" he snorted at her. "You just get to make all my decisions for me!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome huffed, losing her patience with him fast, "It isn't that, it's just sudden is all. How about you give me some time to think about it?"

His white ears folded flat on his head. "Feh."

Depressed, Kagome leaned her face into his head, sighing loudly. "Sometimes you're so difficult, Inuyasha…"

"What was that, bitch?" he quipped, frowning to himself and hiking her higher on his back.

"Now you're going to act like you're sixteen again, huh?" Kagome growled and flicked his ear, purposefully annoying him by torturing the sensitive, tiny appendages.

"Cut that out, bitch!"

"Inuyasha, stop calling me that," she warned him, still using her growling voice, a speaking habit that had only grown stronger over her long years living beside the crotchety hanyou.

"Feh." Inuyasha rounded the corner, leaping and landing roughly, jarring the woman on his back. He slowed when the road laid out ahead of him, a short winding stretch down a steep hill and then, beyond that, the ocean stood out, wide and gleaming in the setting sun. At the bottom of the hill Shippo, Akisame, and Koinu were waiting together for their arrival, staring ahead at the ocean a mile or so distant.

"About damn time we got here," Inuyasha grumbled.

"I'll say," Kagome agreed, flicking her husband's ear again, reproaching him silently for calling her _bitch._

"Didn't I tell you to cut that out?"

* * *

The people of Seizansha were unprepared for their latest visitors.

The day had been hot again and, as a result, the children were still playing in the river as the sun's rays slanted through the thick, moist atmosphere. Most of them were naked but healthy and happy, just as they had been when Sango and her children had entered the village the very first time.

Now the first person they saw was Shippo when he stepped out of the forest and walked toward their stream. Barely taller than they were and with a bright, boyish face, Shippo might've fit in perfectly if it hadn't been for the fact that in such a small village all of the children knew each other intimately—and of course Shippo had brown-red hair, an unusual trait. As he came nearer the children stopped to stare at him, uncertain and trying to recognize him. Perhaps he was a messenger from the larger city on the cliff, Gakemachi. He looked human, though his hair was odd…

Shippo made sure that he walked toward them, rather than ran or teleported. His tail was hidden, vanished from view. "Hey guys," he called, smiling in as friendly a way as he could.

The little girls in the stream, some of which were naked too, ran out of the water and into the village, calling for their mothers. The boys put on braver faces and shouted at Shippo from the water: "Who are you?" "Are you from Gakemachi?" "Go back the way you came, you can't handle the sea!"

"I've come to speak to your elder," Shippo announced, ignoring the few jeers he heard from some of the older or brasher boys.

"Are you with the slayers?"

"What's the matter with your hair?"

Then, abruptly, the boys' eyes left Shippo and focused behind him. Their faces flushed and many of them, except for some of the youngest of them, tried to hide their nakedness. The ritual was becoming all too frequent lately.

Shippo glanced briefly over his shoulder to confirm with his eyes what his ears already told him: Akisame and Koinu had arrived, walking casually out of the woods, not from the narrow path where visitors were expected to arrive from.

"If you don't even like the damned thing," Akisame was saying, "Why keep it? I'll carry it for you."

"Father gave it to me, not to you. Besides, you'd lose it or stab Shippo or me with it. We can't trust you with a sword." Koinu was speaking of the sword tied to his waist, _Izoukago._ It was amazing what one decent Wind Scar could do for Koinu's self-confidence. The "woman's sword" that Inuyasha had entrusted him with before had been a bitter badge of his failure as a son and potentially as a man. Now he carried it with pride, unwilling to give it to Akisame.

"If you don't give it to me I'll just stab you in your sleep. If you give it to me now then I'll let you live." Akisame smirked and slyly began playing with her long, flowing black hair, combing it girlishly with her clawed fingers. She stopped her charade when she spotted the boys playing in the stream and realized that most of them were starkly naked. "Oh, _yuck…"_

"What?" Koinu turned his attention away from his sister and toward the stream too. His face wrinkled with amusement, his ears pricked up. "Wow, would you look at that."

"No, I'd rather not." Akisame huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her eyes toward the ground in what might've been called modesty. Without looking back up she smacked Koinu's arm playfully, "It's like growing up with you all over again and all the talks Mom had to put us through to get us to wear clothes."

"That was you," Koinu told her, bluntly. When she protested he ignored her and plunged onward with his original thoughts, "I was saying how remarkable it is that Kasai isn't sitting near this stream ogling them."

"They're _little _boys!" Akisame growled, making a face at the ground, then she paused, becoming abruptly contemplative and then horrified. "She isn't really _that_ bad is she?"

"Apparently not." Koinu nudged Akisame in the stomach gently with his elbow, "Go back to Mom and Father so we can give these kids a break. They're only embarrassed because of you. If Father sees them he'll get all huffy and embarrassed too."

She accepted his suggestion without a word and, a moment later she was gone, vanished up the path and into the trees. Yet, after she'd left the boys in the stream had yet to recover, their eyes were still glued to Koinu, gawking. When he started to approach them again they cried out and most of them took off running. They screamed one word to the village in warning, filled with terror, "Demon! Demon!"

Shippo sighed and shivered when Koinu arrived at his side. The fox's tail reappeared in a cloud of fine dust. It was a massive, bushy appendage. It fluffed as if Shippo was cold and the kitsune boy twisted around and grabbed it with one hand to comb it flat again. He grinned at Koinu and watched him out of the corner of his eye. "You never get tired of that kind of greeting, do you?"

Koinu didn't answer, but his ears did fold down over his white hair. The sun was setting and, with the new moon only two days past, Koinu wondered if that night he would find himself mortal yet again. Except for the possibility of fighting a whale youkai, Koinu wouldn't have minded appearing human while he stayed in the village. Akisame, though she never underwent the transformation, already looked human enough. Only the sharpest eyes could determine that her eyes were a little too fiery and golden, not true brown. A person with spiritual powers would be able to feel Akisame's demonic power, but it would still be faint. Any monk or priestess could be easily deceived.

Shippo stood upright, his green eyes searching the village huts as people stirred, coming out to respond to the potential demon threat. Among those people Shippo's sharp eyes picked out Kohimu and Masuyo heading their way.

"I think we're finally going to get the welcome we deserve, Koinu."

* * *

Seizansha grew quiet almost the second that the sunlight disappeared from the sky. Families faded into their huts, fishermen haled in their catches with tense, unhappy expressions. Their livelihood was cut into by the demon attacks. Sometimes, out of fear of the monster that was stalking their waters, the men actually abandoned the catches and nets and boats that they hadn't managed to get tied off or hauled in just yet. Though it meant they lost food and money, they accepted the loss readily because it meant they could live another day.

Stuffed inside the smelly fish hut, Sango conducted an impromptu debriefing for Inuyasha's newly arrived family and for her own sons, to remind them of the seriousness of their situation.

"The demon is a hanyou called Iruka." She fought the desire to peek at Inuyasha to judge his expression. Would he flinch at the prospect of killing another half demon? "Iruka eats men and boys—_not_ women. Apparently she also likes to eat other sea creatures. She drinks their blood. She's got white skin that burns, so she doesn't like the sun. The attacks always occur after dark or just when the sun has set—like right now." Sango jabbed her finger pointedly now at all of the men around her in the circle, whether they were her stubborn sons or stubborn hanyou. "So don't go outside _at all_ from now until daybreak."

"What if we have to use the privy?" Kohimu demanded. His tone was one of challenge. He didn't like being confined, and despised the vulnerability of this particular hunt. At his side Tisoki was nodding.

"The four of us," Sango gestured to Kagome, Kasai, and Akisame, "will be the sentries. If you _must_ leave then you'll have to wake one of us up and have us go with you."

"Sango!" Inuyasha shouted, his face flushing bright red. He stammered when he felt everyone else staring at him for the outburst, but he couldn't find the right words to explain to her why he was upset with that rule. It was unacceptable on multiple levels: having someone else, even Kagome watching as he stumbled around trying to urinate sleepily in the dark would be unduly embarrassing. More importantly, however, what if one of Sango's untrustworthy, perverted sons woke up Kagome or Akisame?

As it turned out everyone understood what was on Inuyasha's mind without him needing to clarify at all—he was transparent in this instance. Rolling her eyes tiredly, Sango tossed out a quick solution for the disgruntled hanyou. "Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo, if you need to leave the hut you'll have to wake me or Kasai up to escort you. Do you understand? You can't wake up _anybody else."_

"This is ridiculous," Tisoki frowned and glared at the other men around him, "Penned in here like a whole herd of cows."

"Wouldn't it be better if we just killed it tonight?" Akisame asked. "I'm already bored here and I don't want to take Koinu out to go wee-wee in the night."

Koinu bared his teeth at her. "Shut up, Aki."

"How are you gonna make me do anything when you can't even go outside? What're you gonna do, Big Brother?" she teased, cocking her head and smirking amusedly at him.

"Both of you shut up!" Inuyasha snapped, ears flattened irritably. "The sooner this thing is dead the sooner we get out of here, right? I agree with Aki, Sango. You should kill it tonight and I don't care what you say about this demon, I'm going to out there with you kickin' its ass."

Kohimu cleared his throat importantly and said, "Iruka either kills her victims or, if they survive, she returns them _castrated._"

To Sango and the other slayers this was old news, but to Kagome, Inuyasha, Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo it was fresh and unconsidered information. The three males in the group shifted uncomfortably at just the idea of such a punishment.

"Do you still want to fight it?" Kohimu asked.

"Feh," Inuyasha growled, "I don't care what this asshole is supposed to do, she ain't getting me and I ain't letting you four do it alone."

"I'll help too, no matter what she does to her victims it won't matter because—" Koinu's attempt at a warm, empowering little speech was cut pathetically short when Inuyasha pinned his son with a glare.

"You're staying in here with Sango's sons."

Koinu's mouth fell open, flabbergasted and humiliated, "Father—"

"Your job is to stay here and protect them; _my_ job is to protect your mother and Aki. End of story." When Koinu went on looking at him, disbelieving and wounded, Inuyasha frowned, holding firm. "Stop staring at me and get over it Koinu, I ain't letting you out there."

Sango made a rough gesture, cutting them off. "That's enough, both of you." She turned her attention to the women around her, "If we attack the demon tonight we have to leave one of us here to guard the hut while we patrol the beach."

"Why would she come out at all unless you had some bait with you?" Shippo piped up, smiling mischievously. "Sango, you have to bring someone…"

"She's bringing me, dummy," Inuyasha snapped without looking toward the kit.

"Would she even go after Uncle inuyasha?" Masuyo asked, quietly.

Sango shook her head, "We don't know for sure. I'm hoping that she'll try and Inuyasha will resist and we'll be able to kill her then."

"Well let's stop yakking about it and get moving!" Inuyasha hollered, jumping to his feet and moving toward the door already.

"Inuyasha, sit!" Kagome shouted and, despite the fact that she hadn't used the command in years and the rosary was long gone, the hanyou froze, his body setting into an instinctual trembling as he anticipated a slam dunk into the ground.

Memory returned quickly though and he turned to glare murderously at his wife, ears flat on his head, "Kagome—what the fuck!"

Sango was laughing appreciatively, holding her sides while Shippo struggled to contain a similar reaction. The others, all far too young to be in on the joke, blinked and waited for normalcy to return.

"You have to wait Inuyasha," Kagome scolded him as if she were speaking to one of their children, "We haven't picked someone to stay back here to watch over everyone else."

"Feh!" he huffed, "Then fucking do it already!"

"Akisame," Sango started, turning toward the girl, but Inuyasha interrupted immediately.

"You can't leave _her_ here!"

"Damn," Sango moaned under her breath, rubbing her face with both hands exhaustedly. "Fine then Inuyasha. Kasai, you'll stay here tonight."

She nodded, accepting the charge silently.

"Good," Sango pushed herself to her feet, "Let's get moving."

"Call us if you need anything!" Tisoki quipped, grinning smartly. Kohimu elbowed his younger brother in the ribs and the two began bickering about it no less than a second later.

In the far corner, playing the aloof one now, Shippo shook his head and muttered, "Sometimes I miss the old days when none of you guys were born and everybody got along." His words quieted the dueling brothers, making them grumble embarrassedly. Shippo smirked proudly to himself, thinking about just how false his words had been…

* * *

After the others had left with Inuyasha in tow, Koinu sat near the door flap, catching the faint breeze that floated in from outside to escape the stink of old fish inside the musty hut. Kohimu, Tisoki, and Shippo had begun a word game where one of the players drew characters in the sand slowly, stroke by stroke while the other two tried to guess what it was first. To play they used a small patch of sand that they'd found in one corner of the hut where a wooden floor was missing. The game had grown heated when Kohimu chose a symbol that had multiple meanings. Tisoki and Shippo argued about whose definition was right and whose was wrong.

Masuyo and Kasai had settled into a domestic activity, seasoning dried and preserved fish filets. The rations had been carried in their packs and some of them had been given to them by the people of Seizansha, but everyone eating them agreed that the taste was bland and disgusting. Masuyo had acquired the seasonings during the daytime from Nomo the fisherman's wife that had watched them while Kasai and Sango had met with Kujira.

When they had finished Masuyo, the gentlest and quietest of Sango's sons, began laying the strips of fish over the fire, smoking and cooking them. He planned to feed Sango when she returned, hoping that a more appetizing meal would bring back her strength and her appetite. Kasai left him alone while he worked, crossing over the dirty, rough wooden floor of the fish hut to kneel at Koinu's side.

Although he wasn't looking at her, Kasai knew by the way his white ears turned toward her and then flicked away that he was aware of her approach. Kasai sat next to him and, before he could look at her, she'd grabbed _Izoukago_ out of its sheath.

"Hey!" Koinu snapped, reaching out to stop her hand before she could inadvertently do any damage with the blade, "Give that back!"

The metallic ringing sound of the blade leaving its sheath made everyone else inside the fish hut look over to the couple. Kohimu frowned disapprovingly at once, "Kasai, what are you doing?"

"Go back to your game, Big Brother." Kasai snapped without bothering to look at him.

Kohimu started to get up, ready to drag Kasai away from Koinu just to assert his power over her as _Big Brother,_ but Tisoki grabbed his wrist, stopping him. "Leave it alone. She's trying to cheer him up."

With a snarl carved over his face, Kohimu ripped his forearm away from Tisoki and shoved his younger brother's hand away. "Kasai doesn't know anything beyond pretending she's a man and groping village boys."

Across the hut Kohimu's words could be easily heard and Kasai turned to pick up the argument with her older brother but when she caught sight of Koinu's expression, the painful twist of his face, she paused. In her hand she still held _Izoukago._ Awkwardly she shifted, leaning forward and sheathing the short sword back into its place on Koinu's waist. "I'm sorry I startled you."

Stiffly, Koinu said, "It's fine."

Kasai looked down at her hands, feeling the twitch in them. Her fingers jerked as she watched them. Heat spread over her face but, steadfastly, she ignored it. She plunged into a topic that she hoped would capture Koinu's attention away from the flap of the door and what was happening beyond it—without _him._

"Mom's really sick. She's always throwing up in the mornings, and I think she's weaker than usual." Kasai leaned closer to him and whispered her next words, trying to hide them from her brothers, all of whom were probably listening though they would pretend not to be. "I think she's pregnant."

Koinu's ears flattened and he nodded quickly at her words. "She is."

Alarmed, Kasai sat back, staring at him as if he'd grown a fifth limb. "You don't sound surprised."

Koinu tapped his nose with one clawed hand. "I can smell, remember?"

Kasai's violet eyes, a darker shade than Koinu's simpler sky-blue, searched over his face hopefully, "What should we do about it?"

"I don't know," Koinu said, shaking his head. "I seem to be pretty useless lately."

Grinning, Kasai stretched her arm out and grasped a lock of his hair, tugging playfully. "That's not true, Son of Dog!"

Koinu scowled at her, his brow furrowed unhappily, though he made no attempt to knock her hand away from his hair. He was like a ragdoll cat, highly tolerant to physical abuse. How strange it was that the trait didn't cross over into the verbal realm. "Someday," he growled, his young voice deepening into a zone he rarely used, "I'm going to tug on your hair and see how _you_ like it."

Kasai let go of his hair in exchange for a grip on one of his ears. The fur there was fine and velvety. She stroked the tips and rubbed the outside fur with her index and middle fingers. Tweaking his ears was something she hadn't done very often since they'd been young children. She expected Koinu to snap at her again but the reaction she got was quite different. Instead of being irritated his eyes drifted closed and his shoulders slouched forward toward her.

Kasai paused, startled by the change in reaction and Koinu's eyes snapped open. The pupils were wide, making his eyes darker than they really were. His face flushed bright red and abruptly he slapped at her hand with a viciousness that stunned her. "Stop touching me!"

Hearing Koinu's outburst, Kohimu twisted around to stare at them, forgetting about his game momentarily. "What the hell's going on over there, Kasai?"

"Nothing you baboon," Kasai retorted, sharply.

Kohimu frowned and, after staring suspiciously at his sister's back and Koinu's embarrassed red face and the way that he had tucked himself into a tight sitting position, as if afraid of Kasai, alleviated all of Kohimu's concerns for something out of the line inappropriate. He turned back to Tisoki, Masuyo who had joined into the game as well, and Shippo. Kohimu grinned at them mischievously, "It's too bad Mom didn't leave Akisame here instead of Kasai. Koinu's little sister is so much _fun,_ I'm sure she'd be playing with us…"

Koinu glared over at Kohimu and the others, irritated and embarrassed. He didn't answer Kohimu's baiting, but it had disturbed him. His ears stayed flat on top of his head, unmoving.

Tisoki, not the brightest tool in the shed, missed the mocking, cruel tone in Kohimu's voice and began murmuring quietly in agreement. "Have you seen the way she wears kimono? It's a little girl's kimono!" If he had been female he would've squealed with sexual excitement, "I wish I was out there just to see her running around in that thing—so much _leg…"_

Across the room Koinu had closed his eyes tightly and looked as if he were about ready to vomit. In reality he was struggling to control his desire to shout and growl like an animal in his sister's defense.

Shippo cleared his throat awkwardly, "Tisoki…"

Kohimu made a shushing sound at the kit and started talking where Tisoki had left off, louder now. "How can you live with them Shippo and not _think_ about her…"

"If you tried anything she'd rip something off," Shippo informed him, blandly. "And then Inuyasha _and_ Koinu would kill you." Grinning smartly, Shippo looked over Kohimu and Tisoki to peek at Koinu by the door, "Isn't that right Koinu?"

"Just shut up, all of you!" Koinu shouted, glaring at the whole lot of them, Shippo, Masuyo, and Kasai included.

Kasai tried to smile at him and opened her mouth to speak but Koinu made a rude shooing motion with his hands. "You too! Get away from me, leave me alone!"

Scowling, Kasai left him and knelt in front of the fire where Masuyo had left the cooking fish filets. She sat there for a time, listening to her brothers and Shippo continue their game as if Koinu hadn't snapped, indeed as if he'd never spoken at all. She snuck glances at Koinu, trying to read him, but the dog eared boy never looked at her. His attention was focused on the flap over the door to the hut. He'd used a few clawed fingers daintily to hold it open so that he could peer out into the darkness and the quiet of the village. His ears swiveled, picking up sounds from inside and outside the tent, or so Kasai assumed. He had no interest in her at all, his mind was completely focused on the fact that Inuyasha had left him alone…

"Kasai!" Masuyo called her name, grinning innocently as he and Shippo brushed their hands through the little square of dirt where they were playing their game, "Want to join us?"

With one last glance over at Koinu—who hadn't moved a muscle except for the ones controlling his ears—Kasai gave up and moved to join her brothers and Shippo in their game.

* * *

The moon was a faint white sliver in the sky, like a small crushed feather that had landed in a puddle of spilled ink. In the nighttime blackness even that little bit of light made Inuyasha's hair gleam as if it were a white burning flame. Kagome and Sango trailed after Inuyasha and Akisame, patrolling the stretched of beach around the village. In the dark they wanted to avoid actually trolling the shallows, especially where the cliffs rose up and cut off the gentle beach sand. It would be too easy for Inuyasha or one of them women to trip in the lightlessness and bump their head on a stone. Inuyasha was under strict orders—a fact that he despised—not to do more than wet his toes in the surf.

Akisame, on the other hand, kicked and splashed like a little girl, delighted with the cool, comforting seawater. She was also taunting the whale hanyou, trying in a way to bring it out of hiding.

"Scared huh? I bet you are! What kind of pervert are you, taking fishermen and sucking them dry? If I was you I'd just scare the shit out of them by—"

Inuyasha growled and, lifting one foot to keep it clear of the water as he'd been ordered, shouted, "Aki—shut up. You're making too much noise."

"We want that scumbag to know we're here, don't we?" Akisame retorted. Her eyes glowed like the charcoal embers left burning in a dying fire.

"You're going to wake up the villagers screaming at the water like that," Inuyasha scolded her, "Shut up."

"The village is miles away," Akisame mumbled under her breath, but then fell silent obediently and began kicking at the rhythmic waves instead as she kept pace walking at her father's side.

Sango and Kagome drifted further back from Inuyasha and Akisame's bickering and at long last Sango cleared her throat and announced, "Kagome, I need your help with something."

Kagome smiled and nodded, instantly ready to be of service to her longtime friend. "I'd love to help you with anything you want. What's on your mind? I could tell the minute we got here that you were troubled."

If it had been daytime rather than night, Sango might've noticed the way Inuyasha's ear turned backward, tuning into their conversation. She also might've seen the knowing, anticipatory gleam inside Kagome's gaze.

In a low, cautious voice, Sango whispered her news, "I'm pregnant Kagome, and I need you to stay with me," she stammered as she went onward, "…in case I—if something happens to…"

"If it happens, Sango, I'll be right here." Kagome took Sango's hand in her own and squeezed it reassuringly. "It'll be all right."

Sango sighed and dropped her head down dejectedly. "I'm too old to have any more babies. I'm afraid this one will…" she paused before murmuring the last few words under her breath, "…kill me."

Abruptly Kagome's walking pace stumbled. Sango's concern was new to her; she'd assumed that her friend was speaking of a fear of yet another miscarriage. She hadn't expected Sango to be considering her own mortality. "Sango—you'll be fine!"

"But if I wasn't Kagome," Sango's voice became thick, her breathing jerky and hitched, "If something happened to me, will you promise to look after Miroku and my youngest sons?" She shook her head and smiled in a bittersweet way, "I don't know if Miroku could survive without me, but he probably would. Kohimu and Tisoki are grown, they'd be fine, but without me I don't know what would become of Koudo and Riki—they're still so young. Even Masuyo and Kasai are—"

"Sango!" Kagome sniffled and covered her mouth with one hand, "Don't say such things! You're as strong as you've ever been! So strong that while you're pregnant you'll run out here with us on this crazy mission to kill this _whale_—you're not going to _die!"_

Weakly, Sango gave a little laugh, her smile was genuine. "I know, I'm sorry Kagome. You're right. I just," she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, "I just have a bad feeling about this business." She gestured at the flowing sea, the white of the surf that was powerfully visible, even in the darkness.

"Nonsense," Kagome snapped, taking on her motherly tone, "Everything's going to go smoothly, you'll see."

Ahead of them Akisame squealed with excitement and rushed forward. Her feet kicked up ocean spray and splattered Inuyasha in the face. The young girl, dressed in a child's robe with scratchy peasant pants on underneath it, ran along in the shallow water halfway bent over, reaching out with her clawed hands. Though Sango and Kagome couldn't see it clearly, Inuyasha's night vision was able to pick out the shine of the small fish that Akisame was chasing after. When the fish darted into deeper water Akisame stopped short, but it was a little too abruptly. She stumbled and fell face first into the approaching waves. She came up spluttering and growling like an angry wet cat.

Inuyasha laughed loudly and with a purposeful rude tone, "Serves you right Aki. Quit roughhousing."

Sango leaned in close to whisper in Kagome's ear, "Do you think it's worth pointing out that he used to be just as bad?"

Kagome snickered, covering her lips with both hands to try and stifle the noise in case it might catch Inuyasha's ear. Luckily it didn't.

Groaning irritably, Akisame walked out of the waves. Her limbs were stiff, she held her arms out at forty-five degree angles from her body, and she waddled. The water dribbled around her legs and from her arms, shining with the moonlight like pieces of falling silver. Her hair was long and black and, after a moment of dripping uncomfortably, she shook like a dog, trying to dry herself.

Inuyasha laughed at her as he continued to walk and, when she was finished shaking, Akisame lunged at him. The hanyou returned the motion and collided with his daughter, tussling with her. Akisame gave a little, feminine roar and kicked at her father's feet, but Inuyasha evaded her blows.

Kagome sighed, "Great, now they'll be sparring all night."

Indeed, the playful fighting had turned into a serious duel. Akisame feinted in one direction and then lunged in the opposite, tagging her father on the shoulder when she slid by him and headed back into the surf. Inuyasha whipped around and snatched at Akisame's back. His claws made contact and a ripping noise tore the air apart as Inuyasha came away with a little jagged square of fabric from his daughter's robe.

Akisame growled and pawed at her back, feeling the missing part of her robe. "Great Dad, thanks a lot."

Inuyasha straightened up out of his crouched, battle-ready position and looked toward Akisame with a blank, empty expression on his face. His amber eyes narrowed, his lips quirked up and then down, as if he couldn't decide whether to frown or to smile.

Akisame raced forward and collided with him while he stood that way, almost catatonic. She smashed into his stomach and knocked him over onto his back. Inuyasha grunted and, almost feverishly, tried to push her off. "Aki—get the hell off me!"

"I knocked you down fair and square!" Akisame protested, grinning. Her father ignored her and got to his feet, dumping her unceremoniously onto the ground and onto her own butt _hard. _Akisame winced and cried out, "Ow! Hey! What'd you do that for! You always yell at me when I'm a sore loser, well you have to be fair too or—"

"Shut up!" Inuyasha hissed at her. His amber gaze was pointed carefully at the sea. Finally Akisame and the others realized that Inuyasha was distracted by a threat out to sea.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called, worriedly, "What is it?"

The hanyou shook his head; his ears swiveled over his hair. "Don't you people hear that song?"

"I don't hear anything, Dad." Akisame got to her feet and stood at his side. If she'd been a dog she would've bristled defensively as she stared out at the black, unending expanse of water.

"What is it saying, Inuyasha?" Sango demanded, sounding urgent. "How do you feel? Is it taking control of you?" As she spoke the slayer was pulling at her robes and unfastening hiraikotsu. She set the giant boomerang in the sand while she tossed away her outer robes, stripping down to the body suit underneath.

At her side, Kagome followed suit, loosening the sash at her waist (A/N: to fit in she isn't wearing the school uniform anymore duh. Plus she's way, way out of school.) to allow her legs a wider range of free motion. She hefted the bow and arrows on her back, bringing them forward. "Akisame," Kagome called her daughter, "Take Tetsusaiga from your father!"

At the mention of his sword Inuyasha took a few steps away from his daughter and covered the hilt of the blade with both hands. "What the hell, Kagome!"

"Inuyasha, Kagome's right," Sango shouted, "Give Akisame your sword. You may not be able to fight with it anyway."

Father and daughter stared at one another abruptly and Akisame seemed to shrink back, cringing. She whispered in a small voice that her family only rarely heard her use. It was a vulnerable voice, not an imitation of Inuyasha's gruff, male power. "I don't know how to use it, Dad." The way her eyes stared up into his, lit and glowing from within, was suddenly not because of their rich gold color, but more so because her eyes had filled with a sudden surge of tears.

Inuyasha too stood immobile, realizing that his daughter had been left woefully unprepared—_by himself._ If he was rendered useless by the whale-hanyou's song his wife, his daughter, and Sango would all be left vulnerable without Tetsusaiga's powerful protection. He had taught Koinu because he expected his son to learn it, and he had began a few tentative lessons with Akisame, but Koinu had told him that Akisame was unwilling still, too used to bravado and using her own claws and feet for her defense.

She had never known a real danger and, like a fool, Inuyasha had walked blindly through life assuming that he, Koinu, and even Kagome would be able to shelter Akisame forever.

"It's coming!" Kagome yelled, pointing to the sea, "I can feel it coming…"

Inuyasha and Akisame looked toward the sea and, in his ears, Inuyasha heard the song, fluctuating with high and low notes, chirps, pops, buzzing sounds, and whistles. It was a language, but not one that he could immediately understand…he shook his head and focused on the waves. A shape was underneath them, out where the water just started to grow deep. It was white, glowing like Inuyasha's own hair did in the darkness. The waves masked the thing's true size and shape, and it had no scent, but Inuyasha could already feel its demonic power at the edges of his mind—not a full-blooded power, but a flawed, unique one like his own.

Swiftly, Inuyasha made his decision and his clawed hands flicked over his sword, releasing the ties that kept it around his waist. He pushed the sword at Akisame and looked his startled daughter carefully in the eye, "Think about your power and think about me, your mother, and Koinu—anyone you want to protect. Tetsusaiga will work for you then." He jabbed a finger at her as she accepted the legendary blade with the hesitance of a monk handling a fragile, rare scripture, "Just watch where you aim it. Don't hit any of us."

"Dad," Akisame mumbled, irritated and frightened in the same hand, her mouth hung open as she searched for more to say to him. She had often rebelled against his incessant over-protective nature, but now that Inuyasha was stepping back and leaving her in charge of her own safety, Akisame was suddenly overwhelmed, weak in the face of the strange white beast under the waves.

"You'll be fine," Inuyasha reassured her.

"It's here!" Kagome shouted. She and Sango rushed forward to stand near Inuyasha and Akisame, their weapons drawn and ready.

The four of them watched as, surging in with a wave, the white beast sped into the shallow waters. Now, as she drew closer and closer, her song increased in volume and power. The women heard it too and cringed, gritting their teeth as they tried to withstand the fierceness of the song, its harsh squeals and chirrups.

To Inuyasha the song had dimmed. The incoherent noises of it faded into a background hum. Through it, Inuyasha heard a high pitched, girlish voice: _Come to me, powerful man. Come to me. Walk into the sea; I am waiting for you…_

* * *

A/N: By the time I finished this I'd had a car accident. Rammed a pole with my parents' 2004 Vibe. Demolished the engine. I walked away with a busted knee (is it really busted if I can walk on it?) and a jarred neck and spine. My arms are really weak, and my throat was raw. Now that I've had some real terror in my life…I feel like a fraud writing about it. Can't give it justice. I never thought I could shake that much without meaning to or without being close to dying. I was uninjured, but it was like the entire world was ending there was so much anguish inside me. I have several chapters written for this story in advance so you get a preview, but if this accident plays with my psyche much I might fall into a nasty bout of writer's block. Let's pray not.

Next time:

_The white creature appeared again and rushed forward with a wave, as if about to hydroplane. The sound of its voice, the chirps, squawks, squeaks, whistles, and clicks, became a harsh bellow of intrusive, overwhelming noise. Akisame was the first to crumble, crying out and dropping Tetsusaiga onto the beach sand as her hands flew up to cover her ears. Inuyasha followed her, screaming and clawing at his furry white ears. They, being part demon, had the strongest ears and heard most of Iruka's vocal range. To them it was brain-splitting, thought piercing. It wiped the world away from them, stunning them completely. _

_Her voice was like a bomb going off, an explosion set off inside their four skulls all at once. _


	11. Iruka Attacks

A/N: The first paragraph is description of a true thing that dolphins are known to do when trying to catch fish in shallow waters. Because I love dolphins and I feel my description doesn't do it enough justice, I'm going to put down a youtube link to a video of a few dolphins actually doing the hydroplaning thing. Unfortunately the video is low quality too but…it's still visual. So here goes: ( www. youtube. com /watch? vVhCYH52zXa0 ) hopefully that will work, just take out the parentheses and the spaces and you'll find it. Otherwise you can get the same result by going to youtube and searching, "dolphins hydroplaning."

Disclaimer: I do not own them. Just the kids.

Last chapter: Sango and Kasai saw and spoke with a whale/dolphin named Kujira that said she wanted to help them. IY and Kagome are still at odds about having another baby. They arrived in Seizansha and joined the slayers. Inuyasha insisted to join the women in their fight against Iruka. Sango, Kagome, and Akisame took IY with them to patrol the beach after dark. They left Kasai there with Shippo, a depressed Koinu, and all of Sango's obnoxious sons to keep them safe from Iruka's song. Koinu got angry with everyone and spent his night staring out the door flap listening for Sango, Kagome, Aki, and IY. On the beach Sango worried that she might die with her latest pregnancy because she's getting older. Kagome scolded her. IY heard Iruka's song and, under pressure from Sango and Kagome, he gave Tetsusaiga to Aki, though he realized that she doesn't know how to use it—and that's his fault.

* * *

**Iruka Attacks**

The creature under the water was so streamlined that she hydroplaned through the waves, eventually creating a wave of her own that completely covered her despite the fact that there was only a few inches of seawater. She was clear as she moved in this way, so close to the shore. Sango saw that the shape and body design of this demon was the same as Kujira's. There was a flat, horizontal tail that pumped up and down rather than side to side like a fish's. There was a triangular fin on her back and curved and arched the water over her body like the spoiler on the back of a sports car would do to the air passing over it. The snout moved too quickly for Sango to see it clearly, but she suspected it was the same bottlenosed shape that Kujira had possessed.

Was it possible, she wondered, that Kujira was Iruka? They had come across demons and hanyou before that could inhabit multiple body shapes, two creatures with one soul as it were.

"It's a dolphin," Kagome breathed, lowering her bow and arrow, as if dropping all guard.

For a moment Sango stared at her friend, terrified that Iruka's song, the screechy buzzes, clicks, and chirps were gripping Kagome, taking control of her. She nudged Kagome in the side with her elbow, "Are you with us, Kagome?"

Startled, Kagome blinked and then nodded resolutely, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Dad?" Akisame called, her voice quivering weakly. Both Sango and Kagome turned to glance at the young girl and at the hanyou worriedly.

Inuyasha, nearly weaponless without Tetsusaiga at his waist, was frowning at the white shape under the water. His eyes and ears followed the dolphin-creature as it skimmed through the shallow waters and then darted back away from the shore only to reappear again with the next wave. His brow furrowed and he grunted, "Feh!"

"He seems okay," Sango started to say, cautiously, and then she stopped when Inuyasha took a step forward, brandishing his clawed hands and stretching them out, making his knuckles snap. His claws caught the faint moonlight and gleamed, as dangerous as any sword or any set of teeth.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, alarmed at his lack of an answer.

"Can't you hear it?" he demanded without looking at them. "That damned bitch is asking me to walk into the water!" he laughed harshly, "As if I'm really that fuckin' stupid!"

"I don't hear anything, just that thing squawking." Akisame complained, frowning. She held Tetsusaiga, unsheathed but untransformed. The blade was dull, almost useless. Akisame stared between the sword and the monster just a few feet away, skimming harmlessly through the surf as if she were confused about her duty or what the purpose of the sword was.

"There's no way that this demon lured countless fishermen into the waves just by calling to them." Sango lowered hiraikotsu and stared at the water, contemplating. "I always thought the men were entranced, as if they were under a spell. Their wives or daughters couldn't stop them from walking into the water. I can't hear whatever Inuyasha is hearing, but whatever she's saying it doesn't seem to work on him, not the way it does on humans anyway."

"Feh!" Inuyasha gloated, glancing quickly to Sango with a proud smirk, "And _you_ wanted to leave me behind!"

"It can't entrance women, and it can't convince hanyou to just walk into the water either…" Sango was murmuring to herself, trying to think.

"Who cares? Let's kill it!" Akisame shouted, regaining her bravado. She lifted Tetsusaiga and narrowed her golden eyes at it, willing the blade to enlarge at her silent command. The blade glowed momentarily, responding to her demonic energy, but failing to do as she wished because of her inexperience. Just like a child learning to walk, Akisame couldn't instantly master the sword.

Inuyasha abruptly stopped again, freezing, holding his breath. He stared at the creature under the waves. The beast had skimmed out into the deeper water again and, once there, it bobbed in the waves and moved its head out of the water. There was a rushing, popping sound accompanied by a puff of condensed, moist air, and then the beast dove beneath the waves again and stayed where she was. To Inuyasha the song had paused while she breathed at the surface and, now that she had submerged, the song and her endless, unappealing message telling him to walk into the sea, stayed silent.

"She stopped," Inuyasha announced confusedly.

"Are we going to have to go after her in the water?" Akisame asked, preparing to step forward.

Sango smiled mirthlessly, "Not necessarily." She advanced and hefted hiraikotsu up into the air. The others backed up, giving her room as she let the massive boomerang fly with a shout. The weapon whipped through the air in a circular arc and cut into the waves with an explosive splash. White foam sprayed up, obscuring the group's view for a few seconds. Even through the spray it was possible for them to see the white trail of hiraikotsu as it twisted through the water, diving deep and then whipping back out of the water. Sango stretched her arms up and snatched the boomerang back out of the air with a grunt.

"Did you get it?" Akisame asked. No one replied but the answer presented itself when, through the bubbles left by hiraikotsu's passage, a white shape appeared, swimming and bobbing in the wave.

Kagome lifted her bow, notching an arrow into it and drawing back on the string. With the hand that held the bow at the front she rubbed her fingers over the arrowhead and it sparked as if a fire had been lit, coming to life with her spiritual energy. She released the arrow with a small cry of effort, sending it speeding into the water. Like hiraikotsu the arrow cut into the waves, leaving a white trail of bubbles in its wake. This time, because the arrow was glowing and because it was a smaller tool of destruction, the group clearly saw the white beast evade the arrow, ducking into deeper waters momentarily.

"Missed it," Kagome said, sighing.

The white creature appeared again and rushed forward with a wave, as if about to hydroplane. The sound of its voice, the chirps, squawks, squeaks, whistles, and clicks, became a harsh bellow of intrusive, overwhelming noise. Akisame was the first to crumble, crying out and dropping Tetsusaiga onto the beach sand as her hands flew up to cover her ears. Inuyasha followed her, screaming and clawing at his furry white ears. They, being part demon, had the strongest ears and heard most of Iruka's vocal range. To them it was brain-splitting, thought piercing. It wiped the world away from them, stunning them completely.

Her voice was like a bomb going off, an explosion set off inside their four skulls all at once.

Sango and Kagome stayed on their feet but dropped their weapons, reaching for their ears instead. Kagome watched Sango tremble at her side, hiraikotsu lay uselessly in the sand and Kagome's own bow and her arrows had fallen as well, lying scattered and abandoned. She saw Inuyasha and Akisame on the ground, writhing. Their mouths were wide open, their eyes too, but Kagome couldn't hear their screams over the song of the demon in the water.

(A/N dolphins and some whales are believed to use sound sometimes to stun prey. Iruka is doing the same.)

Kagome looked up toward the sea and the sky. In the halo around the moon thick clouds had begun to appear, carried steadily forward by the wind, slowly but surely they would advance until they covered over the moon and hid the weak silver light entirely. The ocean gleamed while the moonlight was still present however, and Kagome saw the white shape under the waves ripple and change, thinning and elongating.

It stood upright, its body thrusting out of the water. The waves crashed to the shore as they had before, but now the hanyou Iruka no longer rode them like a vulture riding rising currents of air. The water sucked and splashed around human ankles now, mud squelched between her toes. Her skin was still white like snow, glowing in the dark under the thin sliver of the moon.

The song had stopped.

Sango was at Kagome's side, moaning shakily, holding her head with one hand and her stomach with the other. Akisame and Inuyasha were tangles of messy limbs, lying like dead fish on the beach. Only the frantic rise and fall of their chests indicated that they still lived. Kagome realized that somehow she had been the least affected by Iruka's song. She glanced up and saw the white-skinned beast walking toward her. Her hair looked black; it dribbled in a long, silvery waterfall as she walked, shedding the seawater.

Kagome panted and reached for her bow and for an arrow. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the white-skinned woman pick up speed, leaping for her. Kagome's hands closed over the bow and over one arrow. She pushed her fingers over the arrowhead, making it glow purple.

The woman collided with her, picking Kagome up with one hand. Kagome cried out but the sound was lost—she was deaf. She dropped the bow and lashed out with her arrow. The woman tossed her away before Kagome could lodge the arrow in her skin. The sand scratched against Kagome's cheeks, her arms, her legs. The landing jarred her but she recovered quickly, turning to face the woman again, lifting the arrow as her only weapon.

But the woman hadn't come after her, instead she'd stopped, her body stiff as she faced Kagome. The creature had black eyes, beady and like two blots of ink on fresh, white paper. The hanyou woman's mouth was open and her teeth disturbed Kagome, making her think of a reptile. They were all uniform, little round things. The woman was shouting, Kagome realized, but the sound was gone, absent from Kagome's world. At the realization, Kagome felt her eyes prick with tears.

The woman turned away from her and for the first time Kagome was able to see what had stopped the hanyou woman. Sango had recovered enough that she had struck out at her with her sword, stabbing the woman in the side. Blackish blood spilled out over the sand, splattering Sango's face. The woman leapt back from Sango, holding her bleeding side. Her face was twisted into a snarl of hate and pain.

"Sango," Kagome put all of her strength into the name, but again her ears missed it. There was a high, continuous whine in her ears, a ringing. _Tinnitus,_ ringing in the ears.

Iruka, the beast, reacted to Kagome's words, but Sango didn't. Sango was still sitting in the sand, holding the sword up and out, pointed at the demon.

Beyond Sango and the pale hanyou woman, Inuyasha and Akisame were starting to move, sitting up. Kagome watched them hungrily with her eyes, trying to see whether her husband and her daughter could still hear. Were they all deaf?

Inuyasha turned his attention to the woman and his nose twitched, smelling her spilled blood. He began speaking rapidly, his lips moving. His ears lied flat against his head, but otherwise he didn't act as if he were surprised that he couldn't hear himself—did that mean that he could hear after all? Kagome cried out to him, trying to shout his name. Her throat muscles moved, her lips did too, she felt her vocal cords stir, but her ears heard nothing as she shouted, "Inuyasha! Akisame!"

Her heart leapt with joy when both her daughter and her husband looked over at her. _They can hear, they can hear…_

Inuyasha was not one hundred percent. His ears were aching and filled with the same high-pitched whining that Kagome and Sango were feeling: tinnitus. He also had a migraine trying to split his skull wide open like an overripe melon. The backs of his eyes hurt; even his nasal passageways seemed to ache.

But he could hear, he could see, he could fight.

Somehow the demon from the sea had become a land-walking woman. Inuyasha had missed that transformation, but it hardly mattered.

"Hey bitch!" he shouted at the hanyou woman, "Leave them alone it's me you want, isn't it?"

She stared at him, her tiny black eyes gleaming wetly. "You aren't like the rest," her voice came out in a high-pitched inhuman hiss of air, a mockery of true words. "You're like me—you have the same bad blood."

"I'll make sure to change that!" He taunted her, "Soon I'll spill all of your _bad blood_! Every last drop bitch!"

She cocked her head and smiled in a cruel, almost hungry way, the rows of conical teeth stood out like little white bullets imbedded in her jaw. It was an unnatural thing to see, a woman with a mouth like a dolphin's. In her hissing voice she said, "You cannot hear my song the way the others do. Come with me."

"Like hell!" Inuyasha spat. He reached for Akisame who was staring wide eyed at Iruka, stunned. She had hold of Tetsusaiga again, but it was untransformed and she showed no sign of using it. Inuyasha hauled his daughter up to her feet and gripped her wrists, lifting the untransformed Tetsusaiga through them. "You're going to die today!"

Iruka smiled broadly at him and laughed in a squawking, high voice. She leapt toward Sango and Kagome with speed that would have rivaled Inuyasha's own and knelt. When Kagome tried to defend herself with the glowing tip of an arrow, Iruka kicked it from her hands. She grabbed Kagome up by the throat and held her aloft. Kagome gasped and scrabbled desperately at Iruka's hand, trying to free herself.

Inuyasha cried out and started to rush forward with Akisame at his side, but Sango, the closest one to Iruka, acted first. She slashed into the demon's thigh with her rapier sword. Iruka hissed and, stepping back out of Sango's reach, tossed Kagome into Sango like a ragdoll.

"Kagome! Sango!" Inuyasha snatched Tetsusaiga from Akisame and advanced on Iruka but stopped when he'd reached Kagome and Sango. They lied in a heap, tangled in each other's limbs. Akisame knelt next to them, calling their names. Startled by her own daughter's touch, and unable to hear Akisame's voice, Kagome fought against her touch with the only weapon she had: her spiritual power.

Akisame screamed in pain when Kagome's hand hit her bare forearm. She backed away, whimpering and holding her arm as her entire body began to convulse.

Inuyasha was torn between the conflicting sounds and threats. His daughter's cries, Iruka's blood-scent and her sickening grin, and Kagome and Sango's helpless bodies lying in a heap. He yelled Akisame's name, asking her if she was all right. He didn't dare remove his eyes from Iruka, afraid to risk missing her next move.

Iruka spoke to him in her hissing voice, "Inuyasha is your name. Inuyasha," she tasted the name, closing her eyes sensually. She was naked, a voluptuous, attractive female. Her nipples stood out, they rippled slightly when she moved. Inuyasha hadn't noticed this until that moment and, abruptly embarrassed, he took a step backward. His ears flattened unhappily.

"Die already!" he yelled and whipped Tetsusaiga up and over his head, releasing a quick, unannounced Wind Scar.

Considering that the blast was small, Iruka easily evaded it, leaping in a single bound toward the waves and the surf. She stayed there at the edge of the sea, letting the water crash against her ankles. "Inuyasha!" she said, raising her voice above the call of the sea, "I've enjoyed playing with you! Your women were entertaining as well but now," she dropped one hand to her side and her thigh where she was still bleeding, and then brought her wetted fingers back up to her lips, rubbing the blood over them, "I must leave you and have a snack." She grinned and, with the same hand that had been coated in her blood, she pointed to the moon as clouds skidded across it, throwing the world into complete darkness.

Iruka began backing into the sea, letting it envelop her body more and more. "I believe that powerful Inuyasha has passed his bad blood to two calves." She laughed, "And now they're both human…"

"What the hell are you yapping about?" Inuyasha screamed at her, suddenly feeling his body break out in a sweat. Distracted with the threat, trying to interpret it, Inuyasha looked back at Akisame and saw his daughter staring at her hands, whimpering as if she were a tiny child.

_Both human…?_

Akisame had never transformed with the moon before—why would she suddenly do it now? And Koinu's transformations were random but when Inuyasha had left his son had been in his normal state with his white dog ears and white hair.

Perturbed, but still confused, Inuyasha glanced to Iruka again but she had vanished in the waves. Inuyasha heard her song faintly, the clicks, whistles, chirps, and buzzes, all fading. Her voice echoed briefly in his mind, no longer the mocking hiss but now a clear, high female voice with perfect enunciation: _Enjoy tending your females._

The hanyou grunted and sheathed Tetsusaiga, thinking hard even as he turned to see what had happened while he'd faced off with Iruka. The sight was enough to weaken his knees. Sango's face was covered with Iruka's blood, splattered over her cheeks, her chin, and around her eyes. She was holding her stomach and bent over, trying not to vomit. Kagome was crying and making unusually loud, awkward noises, gasps, chokes, and little whines. She was watching him and then looking at Akisame. His wife's hands were tucked beneath her armpits and, for a moment Inuyasha was certain they must've been broken or something for her to hold them so awkwardly.

"Kagome, what's wrong with you?" He demanded but his wife didn't answer him, she was still crying with the strange little noises issuing out of her throat. "Kagome?"

"Daddy…?" Akisame finally caught his attention and Inuyasha gaped at her as part of Iruka's last taunt became clear. His daughter peered up at him with blue eyes exactly like Koinu's. Her amber eyes, a trait she prided herself so much on, were gone. She still had her hands palms up and Inuyasha at last caught the importance of that: she had no claws. Her chin quivered, wrinkling as she looked up at him. "What—what happened to me?"

Kagome was shaking her head and suddenly, for the first time, she spoke, shouting, "I didn't mean to do it! I'm so sorry!"

Inuyasha winced at the loudness of her voice, as did Akisame. Why was she shouting?

Reacting to their negative expressions, Kagome started sobbing even more, hysterically. "Inuyasha—I didn't mean to do it!"

At last it clicked in his slow head. Kagome had purified Akisame. His shoulders slumped with a mixture of defeat and relief. He sighed, "Akisame, you'll be fine by daybreak. Kagome, it's okay, stop crying dammit."

She was looking up at him, rocking back and forth. She shouted at him, "I can't hear you."

Inuyasha's ears flattened as the realization hit him. Iruka had deafened Sango and Kagome. To double check this fact he watched Sango for a time and saw that, although the three of them had been talking, and Kagome had been shouting, Sango hadn't reacted to any of it. She moaned loudly and put her head to the sand, watching Inuyasha, Akisame, and Kagome with exhaustion.

"Shit," Inuyasha growled, "Damn it all!" his fists clenched up.

"Daddy," Akisame whimpered, "I can't smell anything! I can't see anything…!" She had never been rendered completely human before, the experience was overwhelming to her. It was just as disturbing and self-absorbing as Kagome and Sango's deafness.

Growling, Inuyasha reached down and forced Akisame to get onto her feet. "We have to get back to the village _fast._"

She blinked at him and squinted, trying to see him through the dark. She'd caught the urgency in his voice and reacted to it, asking, "Why?"

"That bitch is going after Koinu next."

* * *

Since the slayers had arrived in the village, on the coast, Iruka had been watching them. She was telepathic, able to influence the people living along the shore to dive into the water, into her arms and into her teeth. She used a variety of tricks, but usually just a simple command was enough to lure a man into the water. Sometimes she snagged fishing nets purposefully and let them haul her up into their midst. She could eat them at her leisure on their own boat.

Iruka was an unfortunate crossing of species. Like Inuyasha she was the result of a youkai male and human woman's crossing. Her father was called Hakugei by the fishermen, a gentle god of the sea. She had been born and raised in seclusion, wearing veils to hide her skin from the sunlight, by her human mother, until bandits had killed her and tossed Iruka into the sea, thinking her unlucky and cursed, a deformity rather than a hanyou. Unlike Inuyasha, whose DNA meshed well enough for him to exist happily in one world or another of his heritage, whichever would accept him, Iruka was outcast from both. Her skin was too pale to allow her to survive on the land during the day, and it marked her as separate from others like her in the sea.

She was happy living in the sea, alone, in her dolphin form, but other dolphins and whales would attack her if she came too close. They could identify her for what she was by her faulty echolocation and her strange song. She could not speak their complicated language well enough to blend in. Amongst humans her fate was no better. Humans ran from her on sight because of her iridescent white skin, her strange eyes and her conical teeth. She could speak to them, but her vocal cords were improperly formed. Just as Inuyasha was given to bouts of growling, snarling, and unexplained desires to play fetch, Iruka couldn't stop her voice from creaking, croaking, and whistling when she spoke the human's language.

Worse still was the fact that the mixing of the species had given her a severe handicap. Iruka was tied to the land because she could not process the salt of seawater completely with her kidneys. A dolphin or whale drank the salty water without any worry or harm. Iruka was caught between needing freshwater completely and tolerating salt water. She was always thirsty. Fish were a poor water source, their bodies were very salty. Other sea mammals were good meals and, whenever she could, Iruka would kill an old or very young individual for meat and especially for blood. Blood plasma was mostly water and essential nutrients. But sea mammals were hard prey, often larger and faster than her, and they traveled in groups.

That left humans. She discovered that through sound and the power of her mind as a hanyou, she was able to sense them and she could manipulate their minds to a certain extent. It was in Seizansha that she lured some of her first victims to the water. Their blood was even better for her, watery and nourished by the salt-less land.

She found that she could also elicit sexual responses when she took on her human form. Sea mammals would never mate with her and, because they were creatures of sound like her, they couldn't be manipulated as humans could be. After discovering sex, Iruka realized that she could reproduce and end her time alone. She began a quest, seducing and killing men. She specialized in them until eventually it became the only thing she could do, like a soprano who'd forgotten how to sing the lower alto notes. It was a fortunate lapse for Sango and her slayers.

When the slayers had arrived, Iruka knew that the first real threat of her lifetime had presented itself. She took it head on, trying to lure Tisoki out into the sea on his first night there. But he was too far away from the sea and his spiritual mind, though lustful, was a poor conductor for her powers. She'd thought to go after the other boys, perhaps the arrogant eldest brother on their second night—but Inuyasha and his family arrived first.

She had never felt another hanyou before. And so it was that, like a cat, curiosity drew her in. She was cruel and intelligent, as well as curious, a terrible, frightening combination. After meeting Inuyasha and finding that he was not vulnerable to her manipulation, she hopped on another weakness: his children. Iruka had felt the flush of power from Kagome and sensed the change as Inuyasha's female child was stricken with it and she transformed, losing her demonic power.

Iruka had never encountered spiritual power before either. Some of the humans she'd eaten had prayed or they'd been able to resist her influence because their minds were spiritually inclined, but Iruka had never seen a glowing arrow. She'd never seen a woman that could touch a creature like herself and transform into a full blooded human. As it turned out, Inuyasha's memories were filled with that sort of thing. He himself had transformed uncountable times with the influence of the moon.

And that was when she'd realized, when the clouds covered the moon, that the other child, the boy with Inuyasha's bad blood had changed as well. It seemed too perfect, too coincidental, but Iruka was drawn back to the village to see for herself. Perhaps she could not taste Inuyasha's blood by defeating him—but she could _outsmart_ him and destroy him in other ways.

* * *

Koinu sat upright, breathing hard in the darkness. He'd fallen asleep next to the door, in his own personal corner, waiting like a loyal, lonely dog for his parents, his sister, and Sango to return.

The fire had gone out in the fish hut and all of the others were sleeping as far as he could tell. Though Shippo was a demon, pureblooded and all, he was still growing and developing. That required sleep. The fox kit was snoring where he lied next to Masuyo, curled up with him as if they were best friends or close brothers.

It was too dark to Koinu, even with the fire out he was surprised by how poorly he could see. Alarmed, Koinu reached up and waved one hand over his head. There were no dog ears. He groaned quietly and rubbed his face with his hands, troubled. When he lifted his head again Koinu searched the darkness for Kasai, trying to find where she was lying amidst her brothers. He found her away from them, lying near the unlit fire. He squinted, trying to see Kasai's face, to check whether she was awake or not, but his human eyes were weak and pathetic. If his demonic blood had been awake, Koinu might've used his acute ears to pick out whether Kasai's breathing was consistent with sleep, but with human ears the hut was awash in human breathing and all the tiny sounds of sleep.

Lifting the flap on the door slightly, Koinu peeked out and up at the sky. The stars had vanished. The night was pitch black. It was very late. The moon was nowhere to be seen. Koinu scowled when he saw that, it explained his missing powers. His body was fitful after a new moon for several days. Transformations happened during the nighttime randomly. Occasionally they lasted into the daylight hours too. The weakness embarrassed him in front of his father. Why was it that he looked just like Inuyasha, but had such flighty inuyoukai powers? And why had Akisame been given unwavering powers in comparison? Fate was a cruel devil.

"_Koinu!"_ a woman's voice shouted through the dark nighttime and Koinu's body stiffened with alarm. It was his mother's voice, high and afraid, perhaps even wavering with pain.

"Mom?" he asked the darkness, staring out onto the beach over the sand dunes. The surf rumbled like thunder, continually scraping against the beach. There was no sign of movement out there, but Koinu didn't turn away, he was gripped with the fierce desire to run out and look for the source of the call.

"_Koinu! Come quickly!"_ His mother's voice was louder now and Koinu caught the pain in it clearly now.

Emotion rushed through him, powerful, startling in its intensity. _Mom's in danger!_

Koinu got to his feet and burst out of the fish hut, bounding away as fast as his weak, but nimble human legs could carry him.

Though he didn't see it, behind him Kasai sat up in bed, awake and alert. She left her covers behind and scooped up her sword _Burikko_ from where she'd stashed it near the door without even slowing. She ducked under the door flap and shouted into the darkness, "Koinu!"

Inuyasha's son was rushing over the dunes, his body moved with a liquid grace that, under any other circumstances, Kasai would've stopped to watch and drool over. Now it made her stomach constrict with horror. "Koinu! Stop! Wait! Where are you going?"

Koinu reached the surf and stopped when his feet got wet. He blinked at the sea foam, confused. In his mind he was running along the beach, parallel to the sea, racing toward his mother's voice. Now he came out of his daze and found himself staring at the sea. _Am I dreaming?_

"Koinu!" Kasai shouted behind him and he turned to see Kasai running up over the sand dune behind him, breathing hard. Her sword was with her, unsheathed. The sheath, in fact, was nowhere to be seen at all because Kasai had tossed it as she ran, anticipating that she would have no use for it. She didn't stop until she was right at his side, her bare toes feeling the chill of the seawater too. "You waited," she panted, "Why'd you leave if you haven't lost your mind?"

"What are you talking about?" Koinu asked, blinking confusedly. "I don't know how I got out here."

His words made Kasai's face turn into a stern, solid wall. She grabbed his hand and pulled him after her as she turned away from the sea. "I think she's after you—if I hadn't been awake who knows what could've happened to you!"

Blushing, Koinu ripped his hand from Kasai's. "I don't need you to _hold my hand,"_ he growled.

"Grow up," Kasai scolded him, frowning.

"Me?" Koinu snarled at her back, suddenly furious, "_You_ grow up!"

"Why are you fighting with me?" she snapped, whirling around to face him. Her sword glimmered between them, acting as a silent threat. "I just saved your life you ungrateful dog!"

"Very funny!" he yelled, moving closer to her and batting aside her sword. He bared his teeth at her, though now he had virtually no canines. His black hair framed his face, falling forward around his shoulders. "All you've ever done for me was call me names or make me feel stupid or grope me or, or…" his words diminished, falling into an unintelligible growl as his face pinked. He turned his eyes away from her, longing to hide.

He was thinking of the time she had kissed him, advancing on him without warning while he was trying to master the Tetsusaiga. Kasai was a strange, beautiful girl that he had trouble viewing—was she a sister to him? A cousin? A friend? Or was she…something else? The emotions were complex and Koinu preferred burying them and bringing out emotions he understood. He could dwell on his attachment to his mother, his devotion to his father, his playful competitions with Akisame and Shippo, or he could agonize about impressing his father.

But Kasai…?

Koinu's hand closed over Kasai's wrist, tight enough that she winced and dropped Burikko. The sword thumped dully on the beach sand. Her violet eyes searched his in the dark, "Koinu…"

His eyes glazed over, his face blanked. In the distance, Kasai heard a strange sound, chirping sounds like a bird. Noises that Kujira had made in her dream the night before, the sounds of an animal in the sea. In the same moment that she thought this, Koinu let go of her wrist and turned his back on her, moving toward the sea. He whispered, "Mom?"

"Koinu, you mother isn't out there…" she tried to grab his hand again, to break his trance, but Koinu ripped his hand from hers for the second—no, the _third_ time in one night. "Koinu!" she shouted, trying to verbally refocus his attention.

"Mom!" Koinu cried out and raced for the ocean, headlong, almost blindly.

Kasai grabbed him around the waist and held on tightly, trying to stop him. "Koinu! Your mom isn't out there! Stop! Can you hear me?"

He could hear her; he fought her, pulling on her arms, "Dammit Kasai! Let _go of me!"_

His voice unnerved Kasai and her grip on him wavered, her feet slid through the wet sand at the edge of the surf. The song was growing louder, buzzes, chirps, squeaks, and whistling. "Koinu! Stop! Please stop! Kagome isn't out there!"

"She's going to drown! She needs my help! _Damn you Kasai!_" he cursed at her and clawed at her hands viciously. Kasai felt his nails bite into her skin and closed her eyes, gritting her teeth.

"Kasai! You bitch! Get _off me!_" his voice had changed, growing frantic and heavy. He grunted and Kasai realized that he was crying. He believed so completely that Kagome was out in the water, caught in the waves, being pulled away from him by the undertow and that Kasai was holding him back, as if she wanted Kagome to die.

Desperate, terrified, Kasai moved one leg and kicked at Koinu's legs. He fell, his right shoulder slammed into the surf. The saltwater rushed over both of them, coating their clothes. Kasai shivered and her arms stung where Koinu had clawed her. "It's the demon! The demon is in your head!"

Out in the blackness of the water, about fifteen feet away, Kasai heard a puffing sound that she recognized. It was the same sound that Kujira had made when she breathed through the hole in her head. A long, powerful breath exhaled in one whooshing blow. When Kasai looked toward the sound, scanning the water, she spotted a white shape, cutting through the waves, racing toward them.

"Koinu! We have to—"

He hit her in the face, smashing her nose with the butt of his palm. Kasai cried out, tasting and feeling blood spurt from her nose immediately. She sheltered her face with both hands instinctually and Koinu pulled away from her, freed at last. He splashed into the water, trying to meet the white shape that was racing in toward him, a predator rushing prey, a lioness running the antelope into the ground.

Kasai jumped up and after him, grabbing Koinu's legs, tripping him in the water. He fell with a screech; his head sank under the water.

The shape arrived at about the same time and, under the water when she opened her eyes for a split second, Kasai saw the white shape, a dolphin, skid by her and past the shadow that was Koinu. She surfaced, coughing and spitting the saltwater out of her mouth. Koinu came up as well, blinking dazedly. Kasai lunged for him and wrapped her arms around him, trying to cover his body with her own, as if that might repel the water demon.

"Kasai—what…"

"Get out of the water!" she screamed, pushing on him.

They stumbled out of the deeper water, holding onto each other, shivering pathetically. Koinu kept trying to speak, trying to ask her what was happening, but Kasai didn't answer him. She spent her time searching the water around them, looking for the white shape. It wasn't there! Where was it? Kasai's heart pounded in her chest, she only vaguely registered that her robe had come mostly open, exposing her legs and some of her chest. Koinu's undershirt was soaked, it smacked wetly against her cheek.

The song had stopped. There were no more chirps, squeaks, whistles, or buzzes. Did that mean Iruka had gone? Somehow Kasai was sure the danger hadn't passed even as she felt dry sand beneath her feet, the grittiness sticking to her wet ankles and calves.

"Kasai!" Koinu shoved her away from him just enough to look her in the face. His blue eyes expanded with shock, "You're bleeding!"

"You punched me!" she turned to look at the water. Where was the white shape? She'd seen it in the water before. Where had it gone? The waves rolled in, dark as ink or crude oil. The white dolphin-creature was missing. Without her the water seemed especially dark, brooding and evil.

"I did no—" Koinu's voice was cut off suddenly and Kasai felt his body stiffen.

She turned to look at him and her stomach clenched up. A naked, white-skinned woman with beady black eyes was just behind Koinu. Her long fingered hands were around his neck from behind, clenching tightly around his skin. The woman was tall enough that she could see Kasai clinging to Koinu and she grinned, revealing her sick, conical teeth.

"Did I interrupt something?" the hanyou woman asked, speaking in a high, squeaky whistle.

Kasai let go of Koinu and reached around him, slashing at the hanyou woman with her bare hands. It turned out to be an unwise decision because Iruka simply released Koinu's neck with one of her hands and took hold of Kasai's forearm. She hefted Kasai up with one arm and flung her away toward the sand dunes.

Iruka laughed in a chirping, absurd cackle. "Neither of you can fight me!" She watched Kasai, waiting for the girl to turn her head back to watch as she brought Koinu closer to her naked body. "Should I wait for his father or drink him now? I am very thirsty Kasai!"

Koinu was fighting her, scrabbling at her hands with his own, kicking frantically with his legs. He made disturbing, wet noises with his mouth, trying to breathe around Iruka's grip. His fingers made a dent, tearing into her skin, drawing out a little bit of sluggish red blood.

Kasai got to her feet and rushed for her sword. Her arm ached from being twisted when Iruka had thrown her, but Kasai bit the insides of her cheeks and ignored it. She lifted the sword in wavering, shaking hands. "Put him down!"

"Would you prefer that I drink one of your brothers?" Iruka asked, grinning. She tightened her grip on Koinu, using both hands.

"Koinu!" Kasai raced forward, Burikko lowered for attack.

Iruka cackled again and carelessly tossed Koinu away from her—into the ocean. Kasai screamed, slamming into Iruka before she could follow Koinu's limp body into the sea. Iruka sidestepped the impact, missing Burikko. As Kasai stumbled past her, Iruka grabbed the girl by her robe and threw her backward. "Helpless creature! You embarrass yourself! Your mother caught me being careless but you are worthless!"

Iruka advanced on Kasai in one great stride. Kasai lifted Burikko, trying to impale the monster with her own strength and speed, but Iruka swatted the small blade out of Kasai's hands. The motion of it jarred the blade all the way down to the hilt, and through it, into Kasai's already injured forearm. She cried out, dropping the sword, gritting her teeth in an open, vicious expression of pain.

The hanyou woman snatched Kasai up by her hair, making the girl scream and scramble to get her feet beneath her. "I wonder," Iruka smirked, "What a girl's blood tastes like…"

A flash of purple sped out of the darkness, unexpected and unseen by both Kasai and Iruka. It pierced Iruka's side, plunging in deep. Blood spurted and Iruka dropped Kasai, screaming in a painful, high pitch. Kasai covered her ears and moaned at it. Tears rolled out of her eyes as she struggled to find her strength. The sword was lying next to her…

Iruka had fallen, collapsed to her knees. Her half-wet hair, a black mane of it, had pooled around her, touching the beach sand. Her body trembled, her cries warped, changing and dropping in pitch. Purple light glowed from her side where the arrow stuck out of her, Kasai's savior.

"Kasai!" Inuyasha's voice called, still some distance away.

"Inuyasha!" Kasai answered him, shouting so loudly that her lungs and her throat felt raw. "Koinu is in the ocean! You have to get him!"

Distantly Kasai heard the hanyou cursing.

Iruka shuddered near Kasai, sitting up as her purified body ceased its transformation. Her fingers had shorted, becoming shorter and stubbier. When she looked up at Kasai her eyes were brown, not the ugly, beady spots of ink that they had been. When she spoke, Kasai saw human teeth in her mouth: bicuspids, lateral incisors, canines. The biggest change of all was in her voice. When she spoke it wavered in a normal human tone and with clear human words. "What have you done to me!"

Breathing hard, Kasai picked up Burikko, holding it with both hands though she favored her injured arm. She leveled it with Iruka's head, her face becoming a hard, emotionless mask.

The now-human woman, with her pale, but otherwise normal skin color, gazed at Kasai with wide, terrified eyes. She made a tiny, whimpering noise in the back of her throat as Kasai lifted the sword, preparing to strike. When Kasai hesitated, for just a moment, Iruka screamed and got to her feet. She hobbled away, leaving blackish blood droplets in her wake.

Pursing her lips in frustration, Kasai raced after the stumbling mortal woman, Burikko at the ready. As she closed in on Iruka she closed her eyes, picturing Koinu in this same woman's hands, choking to death. She slashed blindly with the sword and heard Iruka scream pitifully. There was a thump in the sand, two of them actually. When Kasai opened her eyes she saw that she'd sliced Iruka's arm off at the elbow.

The cries, the screams of pain, and the severed arm—still twitching—made Kasai drop the sword and backpedal away from Iruka, sick to her stomach. She turned away from it, wrapping her arms around herself and closing her eyes, trying to block out the sounds and her own memories.

"Hiraikotsu!" Came Sango's shout, louder and rougher than usual. The whipping sound of the boomerang tore through the air. There was a wet sound, a sort of smack somewhere behind Kasai. A last sound of anguish from Iruka, and then silence. Silence if she worked very hard to pretend—if Kasai made herself not listen closely past her own ragged breathing, she could hear the jagged, moist sounds of the hanyou woman's gory death, her last breaths.

Footsteps came over the sand, pounding. A fast, panted breathing and then a small sound of disgust before Akisame spoke, "It's okay, Kasai. She's dead. Dad's pulling Koinu out of the water now…"

"Is he okay?" she asked, frowning at the wavering sound of her voice.

"I don't know," Akisame answered darkly and Kasai could hear the frown in her voice. "Come on, I'm going to go see."

Kasai got to her feet and, making sure that she didn't look at the lifeless body lying in a pool of blackish blood on the beach sand, she ran after Akisame, heading for the ocean.

* * *

A/N: I have a little of the next chapter written so let's see if I have something for a preview:

_With only a faint rustle of the leaf litter and a small breath of air, Inuyasha was at Koinu' side, frowning. "Why the hell didn't you **drink it?"**_

_Koinu made a face. "You mean the blood?"_

_Inuyasha growled and snatched the hare out of Koinu's hands, righting the carcass to stall any remaining blood. "The blood is the whole reason I took you out here!"_


	12. Separation

A/N: And you thought Iurka would last longer! Ha ha! Surprise, surprise. She is only a stepping stone.

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last Chapter: Action! Kagome, Sango, IY, and Aki faced off with Iruka. Iruka deafened Kagome and Sango and, during the struggle a deaf, confused Kagome purified her own daughter. Koinu turned human when the moon was covered over by clouds. He was lured out by Iruka but Kasai followed him and tried to fight Iruka one on one. Iruka choked Koinu and threw him into the sea. One of Kagome's spiritual arrows rescued her, purifying Iruka. As a human, Kasai found that she couldn't kill Iruka, but she did slice off her arm. Sango boomeranged her butt instead.

* * *

**Separation**

Inuyasha emerged from the ocean waves, waterlogged and dripping. In his arms he carried Koinu, limp and seemingly lifeless. Once on shore, Inuyasha laid Koinu's body down on the sand, turning him onto his side and pounding viciously on his back. Koinu curled into a fetal position and coughed uncontrollably.

Kagome and Sango hovered nearby, Akisame and Kasai arrived from the opposite direction. Sango looked up at their arrival and asked, shouted actually, "Is she dead? Is Iruka dead?"

Akisame, panting from the short run—a fact that was unusual Kasai noted—nodded.

"Good," Inuyasha answered, his face set in a grim expression. His ears were flat on top of his head as he stared down at his currently human son. "Koinu? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Koinu nodded while he coughed. When he managed to breathe without coughing there was a sick, wet wheeze in his throat. There were dark circles under his blue eyes, a reaction brought on by inhaling seawater. "I'll be better at dawn," he muttered in a hoarse, raspy whisper.

Inuyasha's shoulders sank, slumping with relief. "Good."

"We need," Sango was saying, speaking with unnecessary loudness, "to take Iruka's head to Gakemachi."

"We can have your sons do that," Inuyasha replied, without looking up at her.

Sango, who hadn't heard him, repeated herself, "Someone needs to cut off her head. We have to take it to Gakemachi."

"Mom," Kasai said, trying to swallow the shakiness of her voice, "He already said we'll have Kohimu do it…"

Neither Sango or Kagome glanced at Kasai when she spoke; they watched Koinu as he shivered on the sand instead.

Akisame crossed her arms stiffly over her chest and glared at Kasai, "They're deaf. Because of that bitch, they're deaf."

Kasai nodded numbly, blinking at the news and with susprise as she really saw Akisame for the first time. Koinu's little sister had blue eyes and her canines were gone, she was human.

Kasai stared at her hands, noticing smudges of blood on them, scratches from where Koinu had clawed her. She'd received injuries from friend and foe: her nose stung and ached from when Koinu had punched her and a bruise was developing on her forearm where Iruka had handled her. She had suffered the injuries and yet been unable to save Koinu from nearly drowning and she had been unable to kill Iruka. _Weakness. _

She watched Koinu's labored breathing and bit her lip, trying not to cry.

* * *

Dawn brought the village to life. A crowd gathered around the spot where Iruka had fallen. A rough, scratchy blanket woven of saw grass was brought out and used to cover her lifeless body. When Sango's hiraikotsu had hit Iruka the boomerang had cut her in half. In total she lied in three pieces. A lower half, an upper half, and one severed arm. Upon death she had reverted back to her hanyou appearance with its beady eyes, conical teeth, and long fingers. Kohimu severed the head and cut the hair. Tisoki and Masuyo prepared a bag for it and tied it off. Because there was safety in numbers, and because they hadn't left the fish hut for two days, all three of Sango's sons left for Gakemachi.

Dawn also saw the transformation in both Akisame and Koinu as both siblings regained their demonic powers. Inuyasha kept a vigil over his son's bed, waiting for the transformation and listening to Koinu's breathing. Koinu had inhaled a bit of seawater during his attack. The return of his demonic powers would heal him quickly, but there was still a risk for pneumonia.

Shippo kept his vigil too, but his, as usual, was on Kagome. Everyone that had worked during the night killing or chasing Iruka spent a great deal of the day sleeping. Sango and Kagome slept heavily, Kasai dozed near them. An old woman in the village had made a splint for Kasai's arm, wrapping it with coarse cloth. The splint wasn't necessary because Kasai hadn't fractured the limb, but it helped reduce the pain by keeping it straight. The women of the village had also given Kasai an infusion of herbal teas to control swelling and pain. She was zonked as a result, drifting uneasily in and out of sleep. She murmured Koinu's name in her sleep and, when she sprang awake, she always checked where Koinu was sleeping under Inuyasha's watchful eye.

Akisame slept only a little and then began a vigil alongside Shippo, caring for Sango and Kagome. When Sango had woken in the midmorning hours and requested water, she'd reported that she could hear some of the things spoken to her and possibly the distant raging of the surf, though that could've been the ringing in her ears. Although both women would probably suffer hearing damage, it was entirely likely that their deafness was only temporary. Their ears would recover, though it was possible that their full hearing ranges would not. A note or two in the highest ranges would be gone, lost forever in the attack. It was doubtful that the women would miss it quickly, they'd be more thankful for the fact that they could hear at all, and that everyone had survived the ordeal.

At last after noon Koinu recovered. He had a niggling cough, but his voice was strong with the return of his powers. Even after Koinu had eaten a little rice prepared by the villagers and had something to drink, Inuyasha insisted that he was too pale. Rice wasn't good enough. Embarrassed, but always tolerant, Koinu allowed himself to be dragged off by his father on a short hunting trip. He knew, going into it, that the excursion was only halfway legitimate. What Inuyasha really wanted to do was speak to his son in private.

It started quickly, a full-out assault. As soon as father and son reached the trees, Inuyasha laid into him, grunting, "So what happened last night? How'd you end up in the fucking ocean?"

"I don't know," Koinu sighed, leading the way. He picked at a few broad-leafed bushes, rubbing the thin leaves between his fingers. "It's really not clear in my memories."

"Then tell me what is, Koinu." Inuyasha snapped, impatiently, "I know you're smart enough to piece it together."

Inuyasha came up behind him and Koinu, feeling the pressure inwardly and outwardly, pressed on, finding an animal trail and starting on it. They began ascending a hill. Koinu started to fall behind, panting. His lungs ached, burning from within though they had barely started to climb at all. Inuyasha paused, leaning against a tree, waiting for him. "Start talking."

"The demon tricked me," Koinu began and then cut himself off with a coughing spasm. His shoulders heaved a few times but he regained his composure and carried on in a raspy, but strong voice. "I woke up and I heard Mom calling for me. I just knew if I didn't go out to her right away she was going to die." He stopped, ears flattening and averting his blue eyes from Inuyasha's probing stare. "I was worried about all of you; I wanted to be there…"

Inuyasha's face softened from the hard, stony face of teacher evaluating a student's failures into what he really was, a concerned, troubled father. "I know you did. I thought you'd be safer with Kasai, helping her." He frowned angrily, but the anger was directed not at his son, but at himself. "If you'd been with us…" he growled and shook his head, "It turned out that bitch couldn't get me and Sango and your mother—" he closed his eyes, his face rippled as if with pain.

"What?" Koinu asked, suddenly alarmed. No one had told Koinu of what had happened out on the beach either. He started to wonder if the interrogation should run both ways. "What about Aunt Sango and Mom?"

"The bitch was so loud she deafened them! And there was nothing I could do about it!" suddenly helpless, Inuyasha lashed out at the tree trunk he was leaning on, ripping apart bits of bark. They rained down, bits of brownish snow. "Then you almost fucking drown!"

Koinu cringed, as if his father's yelling was actually an accusatory rant. His ears pressed tightly against the top of his head. "They can't hear anything?" his words were laced with despair.

Inuyasha sighed and stopped ripping at the tree bark. "It's coming back to them. It's just too fucking close." He drew a deep breath and looked toward Koinu, meeting him pointedly in the eye, "I don't know what I'd do with myself if I lost _any_ of you. Koinu, you have to be careful when you're human! You don't think I've lived this long as a filthy_ half breed_ by just doing whatever the hell I wanted, do you?"

"No, I never thought that, Father." Koinu took a step backward and stared at the ground. There were ants crawling around at the base of some ferns. They had large jaws and used them to haul bits of twigs, hunks of downed insect prey, and unripe berries from some unseen bush along their own private highway. Koinu thought, _Mom would know how they do that, working together with such little brains…_

Inuyasha paused his anger, slowly relaxing. He heaved a sigh and grunted, "Feh. You're still too pale Koinu. Let's get you something raw and bleeding. Sound good?"

Mutely, Koinu nodded. He trailed after Inuyasha as they crested the hill, following the animal path. Inuyasha began sniffing furiously at the ground. He looked ridiculous while he tracked prey: bent over in his bright red haori and hakama, on his hands and knees, white ears swiveling, eyes searching the woods around him, and his nose twitching like a rabbit's. Koinu had only become aware of this ridiculousness in recent years, as a pup he'd felt nothing but adoration for Inuyasha. Now he wondered how pureblooded inuyoukai tracked prey or followed a scent. It didn't seem possible that Koinu's distant, immaculate uncle, the great Lord Sesshomaru, dropped to all-fours and wiggled his nose like a rabbit while he investigated a scent.

The forest in summer was rich and alive. The scents were overwhelming for both Koinu and Inuyasha. Even to a normal human the air was filled with pollens from trees and flowers and the multitude of spores from animals. Lichen coated the trunks of the trees, its white-green color dimmed and dulled by the brightness of the sunshine. Leaves fluttered in the breeze above, but the moving air didn't reach under the canopy where the air was still and untouched, allowing scents to linger even longer.

A shadow passed by overhead, blotting out the sun for a moment. Koinu looked up at it, squinting at the quivering leaves. The sunlight had resumed, the shadow had passed in the space of an eye-blink. Koinu sniffed and looked around at the forest. Inuyasha's entire being was focused on the ground, on discerning one good prey scent out of the menagerie of animals that had passed by on the little trail. Nothing had changed, but Koinu struggled with the tremor of unease that passed through him.

"Father?" he called.

Inuyasha snorted and gave a thick, strangled cough. When Koinu looked at him Inuyasha was wiping at his nose irritably, pulling a bundle of orange-brown pine needles out of his nose. "Dammit…"

"Did you see that shadow that—"

Inuyasha interrupted him, "What are you talking about? Climb a tree or something, help me out. I'm tired of that damned hut and the shitty fish they've been feeding us. We're not going back there until we've caught a buck."

"What about some kind of bird? That could—"

"Then it's going to have to be a _big bird._" Inuyasha announced, glaring at the trail. "And there ain't anything good around here." He got to his feet, grunting with the effort, and gestured gruffly at his son. "C'mon. Let's get moving."

Inuyasha bounded up the hillside, pausing only a second to glance back expectantly at Koinu. Biting his lip, Koinu followed. Soon, with his lungs still recovering from his unplanned dunk in the ocean, Koinu's unease was wiped away as he struggled just to breathe and maintain an acceptable pace behind Inuyasha.

The trees whipped by. Saplings rustled and dipped as father and son dashed passed, creating an artificial wind underneath the normally still and stagnant canopy. Koinu spotted small prey animals around the woods with almost every leap and landing throughout the forest. A gecko with yellow eyes tipped its head to one side when he landed on a branch beside it. An entire family of mice scattered in the leaf-litter when Koinu landed on top of their nest. Songbirds erupted out of the branches of a tall tree when Inuyasha and Koinu landed in the lower levels. It would've been simple enough for Inuyasha to pause and leap after them to score a fast snack, but the hanyou ignored them.

At last a fawn was startled out of her hiding place in a small sapling fir when Inuyasha landed near it. He picked up the scent immediately and stopped, searching with his predatory glare through the dappled lights and darks of the underbrush. The fawn was old enough to have lost its spots. It was caught in transition between the instinct to hide—as it would've done as a newborn with its white spots intact—and to run as an adult or adolescent deer would. It was a clumsy animal, stumbling out of its hiding spot and trotting away, bleating pathetically.

Koinu, panting and clutching his side, landed just behind Inuyasha and stared confusedly after the fawn. "Fa…Father?"

Inuyasha's white ears flattened against his head. The fawn had large, round brown eyes, a beautiful shade that made him think of Sango and Kagome. He had never killed in front of Kagome or Sango before. Koinu was a different story—his son would need to know how to survive of course. But the bleating fawn, its unsure reaction between hiding or fleeing, and its brown eyes, entranced Inuyasha, forcing his mind to Kagome and Sango. Back in the village they were almost unprotected. Akisame, Shippo, and Kasai were there, but all of Sango's sons had gone to Gakemachi with Iruka's head to get payment. They couldn't hear. They were vulnerable. If the fawn hadn't been able to hear Inuyasha for instance it wouldn't have run and Inuyasha could've killed it without taking note of its eyes, its rich brown fur or the pathetic, weak bleating…

"The deer…" Koinu panted, "Father…?"

"It's a fawn. No good." Without another word Inuyasha changed directions and began walking, sniffing at the air. In a moment, some yards away, with his ears swiveling, Inuyasha pointed to a fallen maple. "There's a rabbit in there." He looked expectantly to Koinu. "Well? What are you waiting for Pup?"

Frowning, Koinu raced for the tree. As Inuyasha had predicted a hare bounded out of the exposed, uplifted roots. Koinu ran after it and then with one calculated leap landed on top of it. The hare screamed, a high-pitched squeal of terror that ended abruptly when Koinu broke its neck working with both his hands and his feet. When the hare's body went limp Koinu stepped away from it, drawing deep, heavy breaths to steady himself.

"Good!" Inuyasha shouted, grinning rather fiercely. "Eat it."

Obediently, Koinu picked up the carcass and brushed it off. He turned his back on his father, embarrassed by the weight of Inuyasha's stare. "Are you going to help me with it?" he asked over his shoulder as his claws cut through the fur at the hare's neck. He tipped it upside down and waited as the blood started to dribble out before he started pulling at the skin.

"Hell no! That's _your_ kill. Just you better damn well eat it. Don't get squeamish on me, Koinu."

Inuyasha began launching into a lecture while Koinu rolled his eyes and, frustrated, found that he was coming away with chunks of rabbit fur rather than actually peeling the skin away from the meat beneath.

"Your mother is always whining about what you and Aki eat. She says it's not _clean_. Well fish ain't clean either—they swim around in their own piss. And I don't care what she says you and Aki need real meat." Inuyasha was reciting an ancient battle of nutrition that had waged between Koinu's parents probably from the moment he'd been born. If Kagome had been present to see her son kill and then pry the skin from the hare's body, it was entirely possible she would lose her lunch. It was not the skinning or killing that bothered her necessarily, but the fact that her _son_ did it. She accepted that Inuyasha did it, but for Koinu to do the same was somehow crossing the line into becoming disturbing.

Koinu had ignored his father's speech up until that point, too absorbed with the task of skinning the hare—but then Inuyasha's attention changed, as did the tenor of his voice. "What the hell? Are you just letting all that blood out?"

Distractedly, Koinu turned one white ear toward his father. "What?"

With only a faint rustle of the leaf litter and a small breath of air, Inuyasha was at Koinu' side, frowning. "Why the hell didn't you _drink it?"_

Koinu made a face. "You mean the blood?"

Inuyasha growled and snatched the hare out of Koinu's hands, righting the carcass to stall any remaining blood. "The blood is the whole reason I took you out here!"

Still frowning, Koinu looked at the old leaves and green grass between his feet, all of it spattered with the hare's blood. His ears flattened. "I've never liked blood…" disgustedly, Koinu leaned down and brushed at his pant legs. Bits of the hare's blood had splattered onto his hakama and onto his bare feet. Against the green fabric of his hakama the blood looked distinctly brown, an ugly fecal brown at that.

"Stop picking at yourself, you're not a fucking cat! A little mess isn't going to hurt you." Inuyasha thrust the hare's body back at Koinu and ordered, "Eat it with the blood left in next time. And don't you dare cook the liver. I want you to dig it out now and eat it."

Sighing, Koinu picked at the carcass, opening it up indelicately. Blood oozed out, coating his fingers and splattering him in the face. Koinu grimaced and pawed deeper into the tissue until he'd tugged out the dark gray blob of liver. He ate it without hesitation and glared irritably at Inuyasha while he chewed.

The hanyou nodded approvingly. "That's better."

After he'd swallowed, Koinu shook his head. "I'm not Mom. I've never been afraid to eat—"

"You didn't drink the blood." Inuyasha interjected, grumblingly. "Humans drain their kills. You shouldn't."

"Blood makes me sick to my stomach." Koinu admitted, looking away from his father and from the bloody carcass in his hands.

There was a long pause before Inuyasha grunted, "Feh." The single noise, as it always had, contained an entire sentence and value judgment in that monosyllabic answer. In this particular _feh_ Koinu heard consideration, bafflement, curiosity. He would believe Koinu, but he couldn't fathom what his own son was saying.

It was one of the physical differences that halving Inuyasha's inuhanyou DNA had caused between the generations. Inuyasha craved and required raw meat and blood. His children could stomach it and enjoy it too, but the _need_ was diminished, if not absent completely.

The shadow passed over the sun and then was gone again in half a second.

A sudden rush of air smacked into the canopy, making the trees sway violently and the leaves rustle. Handfuls of leaves were torn loose. They fluttered down to the forest floor, twirling as the wind calmed again. Inuyasha and Koinu searched the forest around them, scanning it together as a team. Like paired soldiers facing a sniper they turned, sniffing at different spots, trying to find the source of the disturbance.

The forest was calm, unchanged.

But now both Inuyasha and Koinu felt the grip of foreboding close over them, like water over a stranded swimmer's head.

"Let's get back to the village," Inuyasha said.

Koinu nodded and clutched his kill with one hand as they hurried away, flying through the underbrush and the lower branches of the trees.

* * *

The first sign that something was wrong—seriously wrong—came into Kagome's attention when both Akisame and Shippo began babbling rapidly. Their lips moved, flapping and working, but though Kagome watched carefully she could only think she'd caught one or two words out of whole sentences. Some of her hearing had returned during the night and during the day, but much of it was still missing. She could hear some low words, like whispers that floated to her through an auditory world of an oceanic, unending ringing.

They tried to communicate with her. Shippo disappeared in a puff of air while Akisame made wide gestures, but Kagome and Sango, sitting side by side enjoying their late lunch, gleaned nothing from her attempts. Kasai, groggily awakening in her own spot, got a lot more out of Akisame's speech and gesturing.

The young girl hauled herself out of her bed and started shouting at Akisame. Kagome guessed that Kasai was shouting anyway because she caught bits of it, half-formed noises, fragments of words, and because Kasai's lips parted widely when she spoke, indicating volume or intensity. Sango and Kagome watched Kasai with concerned, confused frowns on their faces, trying to interpret what had been said by the reactions and actions the words elicited.

The girl alarmed them when she grabbed her sword, Burikko from where it was stashed in its scabbard in the corner. Sango asked a question, but Kagome only caught the last two words that the slayer's lips formed clearly: _"…going on?"_

Kasai and Akisame faced their deaf mothers together then. Akisame had wrapped her arms around herself, as if she were cold in spite of the fact that the fish hut was stuff, stinky, and hot inside. Kagome was caught between watching her daughter's disturbing body language and trying to read and hear Kasai as she spoke to Sango. In the end she directed her attention to Kasai only to see Akisame rush out of the fish hut out into the sunlight beyond.

Kagome called after Akisame but the girl didn't turn to look back. The flap over the hut closed behind her, blocking out the sunshine.

Kasai had craned her neck around to stare at the door as well. Sango was calling Kasai's name—it was easy enough at least for Kagome to read names from the moving, soundless lips around her. Although Kasai could hear she didn't react to Sango. Her attention stayed at the door, as if she hadn't heard Sango at all…or as if there was another sound distracting her.

Sango lost her patience and, gritting her teeth in a hard, mirthless grin or effort; she got to her feet and crossed the room to grab hiraikotsu. Kasai tried to stop her, shaking her head emphatically and waving her arms, as if she could distract her deaf mother from the outside world by amusing her visually.

Kagome rose to her feet as well. Her body ached from the encounter with Iruka the night before. Her headache had diminished with the help of the painkilling teas and soups provided by the village women, but the achy muscles remained. Her neck was sore from where Iruka had grabbed her, the impact with Sango had left her ribs sore and her knees scratched up from the sand. Sango, always wearing her armor and her flexible body suit, had endured less outside damage, though it was likely that she was sore internally too. She moved almost effortlessly to Kagome's eyes though, hiking hiraikotsu over her shoulder with only one arm while she shrugged on her short sword.

Kagome took up her bow and stiffly pulled the arrows onto her shoulders. While Kasai continued to yell at them soundlessly, Kagome pulled out one of the arrows and touched the edge of the arrowhead with her finger, pressing until she began to feel a twinge of pain. _I purified Akisame…_ She fought the tight, hot pain in her chest at the thought as she moved toward the flap over the door to the fish hut, following Sango and Kasai out into the blinding sunlight.

Past the last rolling white-yellow sand dune Kagome saw the source of the commotion. The entire village had emptied out to stand at the edge of the surf, gawking. Sango, Kasai, and Kagome hurried over the sand dune as one unit. The crowd parted for them as Kasai took the lead. Kagome thought that the young slayer was shouting for the people to move, but she couldn't be sure. The villagers that Kagome caught snatches of on the sidelines looked petrified. Their faces were white, washed out even under the powerful glow of the summer midday sun. Some of them were crying, not hysterically, but Kagome thought she saw moisture on their cheeks, shining in the bright afternoon light.

The spectators had gathered around about where Kagome had last seen Iruka's body before Kohimu had hacked off her head to take it to Gakemachi with his brothers in tow. As the last people in her way stepped aside, Kagome finally saw the source of the commotion that had drawn Shippo, Kasai, Akisame, and now the two deaf, stiff and sore women warriors Sango and Kagome out into the stifling afternoon heat.

On the beach sand Iruka's body was still covered by the blanket made of woven grass. Brownish blood had soaked into the sand around her body and the flies had claimed the carcass, forming a sick cloud that coalesced around the body, feeding. But it wasn't Iruka's body that attracted Kagome and the gawking, mortified villagers. Their eyes were directed to the man standing in the surf. He was tall but round and plump, his skin was glaringly white. Even from several yards away at a relatively safe distance, Kagome could see the beady black of his animal-eyes.

He was a whale youkai—or perhaps yet another hanyou.

And, with both of his stubby, plump arms—with their _webbed fingers_—extended to either side, he seemed to hold Akisame and Shippo at a standstill with an invisible force. Shippo had curled into a ball at the edge of the frothing surf, trembling. Kagome saw that his mouth was open, his eyes tightly squeezed shut. Akisame was in a similar predicament a few feet away to the other side. Kagome's stomach lurched up inside her and she pressed forward, shouting her daughter's name even though her own voice was lost inside the ringing in her ears.

The demon looked up, pinning Kagome, Sango, and Kasai with his beady eyes. He was, and had been speaking the entire time that Kagome had seen him, but she could hear none of the words. The villagers reacted to them by stumbling to their knees and bowing. They cried. The sand stuck to their faces. It was as if they were worshipping, begging or pleading for their lives…

The demonic power from the beast in the surf flowed over her and Kagome choked. Her skin prickled at the psychic touch, disturbed, reacting with little sensations of pain like pinpricks. Kagome saw Kasai react in a similar way, gritting her teeth and stumbling.

Then, for the first time in nearly an entire day, Kagome _heard._ She jerked her head toward the beast, her mouth hanging open in astonishment. The rest of the world was still dulled and dimmed, mute to her, but the creature had somehow spoken to her anyway. When she saw that his lips didn't move she knew with certainty that he was using her mind, not her ears. She closed her eyes and tried to block him out.

_You females killed my daughter. I will make you suffer as she did…_

* * *

Koinu and Inuyasha burst out of the forest, bounding down the slope. Their first sight of the village was almost normal. People were out and about, walking near the sea. For fisherman or children playing in the summer heat it all appeared normal. But to their keen ears both Inuyasha and Koinu could pick out the crying, the notes of alarm…

"We're too fuckin' late!" Inuyasha rushed forward, kicking up the white-yellow beach sand in his wake. He nearly collided with a hut that was in his way before he paused just long enough to gather his energy for a massive leap, vaulting clear of the obstruction entirely.

Koinu paused at the edge of the village, where the closed, tight compartments of the forest ended, giving way to the beach grass and sand of these last swathes of land. He panted, holding his chest with one sticky, bloodied hand. In the other he still clasped the carcass of his kill, forgotten but not gone. When he heard his father shout incoherently, raging in what Koinu picked out as grief, he dropped the hare and hurried forward.

As he wove through the huts, Koinu heard his father cry out again with worsening notes of horror, fear, and pain. Koinu found that, even as he ran and struggled to breathe with the water still caught in his troubled lungs, he couldn't control the power of his own fearful anticipation. His eyes stung. The tears came before he could stop them. What if his mother or Sango had died? What if their deafness was just the first part of a larger brain problem? A stroke? A coma? A brain aneurism?

He wiped at the tears, frowning as he realized that his fingers, smeared with clotted blood from the hare, would leave his face streaked. He would look like his uncle with the reddish marks over his face. An inuyoukai with white dog ears.

Inuyasha had fallen quiet, but that was simply because he was listening to Shippo. Koinu surveyed the beach quickly as he ran forward, pushing the villagers away as he went. It was empty; there was no sign of anyone that he knew aside from Shippo and his father. The fear tightened its fist inside his chest, closing around his heart.

Shippo was shaking violently; his words were loud and slurred. Koinu recognized the way that the kit spoke immediately for what it was: Shippo was deaf. The kitsune held onto Inuyasha's haori and sobbed. The tears rolled down his cheeks and the sight of them made Koinu's own eyes sting all over again as he knelt beside his father and listened to Shippo's quavering words.

"…he called it and it came down from out of the sky. It had wings as wide as the whole beach! It came down and scattered everyone. And I realized when I saw their mouths open—I can't—I can't _hear anything…"_

Inuyasha shook Shippo's shoulders impatiently and shook his head to tell the kit he wasn't interested in that panic at the moment. "Tell me what happened to them!"

"They were knocked out! I don't know what did it. The bird came down and took them away."

"Who? _Where?"_ Inuyasha shouted, shaking Shippo again.

The kit cringed and shook his head. "I can't hear you, Inuyasha…"

The hanyou snatched Shippo's chin between his clawed fingers and twisted him forcibly into staring up at him. He moved his lips very slowly as he spoke then, saying, "Where did it go?"

Shippo's green eyes blinked up at the hanyou through an overflowing puddle of tears. "Inland," he choked out. "It went inland."

"Where inland?" Inuyasha shouted into the kit's face. Shippo cringed and cried harder, his shoulders heaving against Inuyasha's grasp.

A villager answered Inuyasha now, pointing a sharp, bony finger inland and westward. "It went west!"

Shippo, seeing the change in Inuyasha's face as he tensed, thinking of rushing off headlong after his wife and his daughter, tightened his grip on Inuyasha's haori, pulling on him. "Don't leave me here, Inuyasha. I can still help you! Take me with you…"

The hanyou nodded grimly. His ears laid flat over the top of his head. Without looking up he issued an order for Koinu: "Go look around for them. Shippo says it took the women."

Koinu instantly rushed off to do as Inuyasha instructed, but even as he got to his feet and glanced at the beach and the calm, salty surf, Koinu knew he was already defeated. Near the water, close to where Iruka's body laid with its grass woven shroud and the moving clouds of flies, Koinu could see his mother's bow and arrows, Sango's hiraikotsu, and Kasai's Burikko. The women would never have abandoned their weapons as one and fled. The evidence on the beach testified to the truth of Shippo's words.

Kagome, Sango, Kasai, and Akisame were gone.

Just as Koinu had reemerged from inside the fish hut, which stank only of seafood despite the fact that the slayers had lived there for upwards of two days, he saw the gray, triangular shape of a fin break out of the ocean waves. Before he had time to react to it the fisherman had seen it and were pointing it out, screaming in fear. The humans retreated, sobbing and muttering prayers. Only a few remained that were willing to face the latest beast from the sea—willing to back up the stunned Shippo and the emotionally jolted Inuyasha and Koinu, the only slayers that were left to take the credit for killing Iruka.

The slick, gray fin coasted into the shore, hydroplaning the same way that Inuyasha recalled Iruka doing. Shippo stared uncomprehendingly at it, not having seen the behavior before. "What is it…?"

Inuyasha left the kit and, with a sound that was a mix between a growl and a scream, he unsheathed Tetsusaiga and charged at the waves, as if he were about to take on the entire ocean herself. "Come out and show yourself!"

As if responding to his demands, the owner of the shape cut out of the waves several yards away, beaching itself. It was a dolphin, gray-skinned with a sleek, plump body and a bottle-nosed snout. It opened its mouth as if it were speaking but all the real sound, the squeaky, whistling imitations of real human language, issued out of the hole in its head instead.

"I am Kujira." It announced, slapping its tail, "I help you."

"Like hell you do!" Inuyasha advanced on the dolphin with Tetsusaiga raised and transformed. His amber eyes were narrowed into dangerous, glaring slits. "I'll gut you like a fish if you don't tell me where you took Kagome and Aki!"

Kujira clapped her jaws together irritably. "I help you. I did not take them. I know the one that did. Iruka was his calf. He was Hakugei." She lowered her head to rest it on the sand. Her blowhole opened and closed, puffing loudly. "My mate. Hakugei. Unfaithful. He mated with a woman from your land. Iruka was his calf."

Inuyasha shifted on his feet, scowling deeply. He was caught between fascination and the need to expunge his inner turmoil through violence. His hands twisted over Tetsusaiga's hilt. "Where did this bastard take them?"

"He took them nowhere. He sent Umidori. Seabird. Umidori flew into the land where Hakugei cannot go. Hakugei will not harm anyone more. He is punishing your women for killing his calf. Umidori will take them to the other sea. By two and two."

Inuyasha lifted his lip in a snarl. "By two and two? What the hell are you saying?"

Kujira squeaked pathetically and heaved herself backward with her front flippers. "The sun is too hot. I must go."

Inuyasha stepped forward menacingly, ears laying flat, sharp canines exposed. "Where the _hell_ did this _fuckin'_ bird take my family?"

"Two places." Kujira answered him, pausing as she hauled herself backward. "On the shores of the other sea. West."

"Two places?" Inuyasha growled, "How the…" he stopped, remembering the dolphin's words: _by two and two. _"It split them up." He blinked as the realization hit. He would have to cross Japan, heading over the mountains, until he reached the western coastline. Then he would have to roam up and down it, searching for Kagome, Sango, Kasai, and Akisame in two different places. Not one, but _two._ Why would it split them up?

Kujira had vanished back into the sea. Inuyasha watched her fin slice through the waves, heard her puffing breath as she hovered some distance away, waiting or watching him. Was she trustworthy? Few youkai were but Kujira's words backed up what the villagers had said and what Shippo had said. Inland and west. A bird, a white man standing in the surf that could pierce Shippo and Akisame's minds and control them, making them lie stationary in the sand while he stood over them weaponless but in complete control.

The hanyou sheathed Tetsusaiga without letting it shrink. The sound was grating, metal on metal. He turned away from the sea, his lips thinned in a hard, white line. When he glanced up he saw that Koinu had reappeared and was helping Shippo to get to his feet with his usual gentleness and care.

"We have to go after them," he said, his face set in a deep scowl. He began walking forward, as if about to set off at that very second, uncaring whether Shippo and Koinu followed him or not.

"But Father," Koinu started after him with Shippo's arm slung over his shoulder though the bewildered kit was able to support his own weight. "What about the others? Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo are at Gakemachi. They don't know—"

Inuyasha growled, silencing Koinu with the sound. "We'll go there first but it's going to take two groups to find everyone."

"Who will go where?" Koinu asked, struggling to keep up. They passed through the last few villagers who bowed and murmured quiet goodbyes and thanks. The hanyou, his son, and Shippo were not human but the villagers understood that these men had accompanied Sango's slayers and now disaster had struck back at them, aiming at the women. Koinu pitied the people they passed because the villagers so clearly didn't know how to act or repay the kitsune, the hanyou, and the pup that had helped them.

He smiled at one old man that peeked out of his hut but the man blanched and ducked back inside the dark of his home. Koinu let his ears droop then and, even while he watched Shippo slumped against his shoulder and tried to keep up with his father, his thoughts were with his mother, his sister, his pseudo-aunt, and Kasai—whatever she was to him: sister? Cousin? Friend? Enemy?

Flashes, snippets of memory had begun returning to him from the night before. His toes in the surf, Kasai shouting his name. He recalled the way her violet eyes had gleamed wetly in the dark, wide with fear for him. The sword that she had carried was abandoned on the beach now…

"Wait!" Koinu shouted.

Inuyasha turned one ear backward and slowed. "What is it now?" he growled.

"We can't leave their weapons, Father."

Inuyasha's face was a twisted map of anxiety and anger. His ears laid perpetually flat against his head. "Stay here, I'll get them. I'm the fastest." He leapt straight over Koinu and Shippo's heads and disappeared behind a dune, kicking up sand as he went.

Shippo watched the exchange confusedly, crying silently. When Inuyasha left the kit slumped and let all of his weight fall on Koinu. He sniffled there weakly, mumbling to himself. "I could've done more—I should've been able to stop it…to save them…"

Koinu tilted his head, as if searching for a shoulder of his own to rest on. There was none. He closed his eyes, fighting the burn of tears. The child inside of him, not squelched by life or complete maturity yet, longed for his mother soft skin, for the gentle touch of her hand son his hair, his ears, and his face. _How worried she must've been when she found out I nearly drowned…_

An image returned to him, filtering through his stunted memory of the night before. Kasai pressed tightly to his chest, her cheek against his undershirt, much as Shippo was leaning into him now. The water from the sea dribbling from the hair around her face, from her ears, and from her chin like tears. Intermixed with the innocent seawater was the blood oozing from her nose. Although at the time Koinu hadn't remembered doing it, in the light with Shippo sheltered under his arm Koinu dredged up the moments before they'd plunged, tripped together in the ocean. He'd cursed at Kasai while she tried to save his life: _"Damn you Kasai! You bitch! Get off me!"_ And then he'd slammed the butt of his palm into her face, aiming purposefully for her small, sculpted nose. But even that hadn't deterred her from trying to save him.

Those were some of the last things he'd said to her. All of the women—Koinu hadn't appreciated any of them enough. Sango so brave in her silent suffering, carrying a child in her belly that she was sure was doomed. Kagome comforting and supporting every member of her family, endlessly reaching out to offer her help or her guidance. There was a strength there that he couldn't find words for, a trait that he longed to possess himself. Akisame was crude and argumentative, but without her Koinu felt instantly alone, as if he'd lost his shadow. Her bravado encouraged him to overcome his own weaknesses, her stubbornness dictated his own. And Kasai, shadowed by her brothers, struggling to fill her mother's shoes and eek out her own identity at the same time, she was not like Koinu, in fact she was almost his opposite. She worked so hard to appear strong, a callous _male_ warrior, she denied her true self while Koinu grappled to accept and embrace his.

She was bones and muscle, the body. Koinu was heart and brain, the soul. But bones break too and muscles weaken…

Inuyasha reappeared, carrying hiraikotsu on his back clumsily. Kagome's bow and arrows he held in one hand, and in the other was Burikko. Those three weapons had saved Koinu's life the night before. The purified arrow to weaken Iruka, Kasai's Burikko to slow her down, and Sango's hiraikotsu to kill her.

"Koinu you get to be the mule since this was your idea." Inuyasha grumbled. "I'll carry Shippo on my back."

They exchanged burdens. Soon hiraikotsu, surprisingly heavy and cumbersome, Kagome's bow and arrows, and Kasai's sword were all tied onto Koinu or slung over his shoulders. Shippo, meanwhile, held onto his hanyou escort tightly, sheltered his tear-streaked face from the wind. They set off running for Gakemachi.

* * *

A/N: Let's see about a preview…

_The man shrugged uncaringly. "It's not over yet, Umidori. I'm sure Kiremono will catch her." He pinned the bird man with a careful, slightly irritated glare. "You're sure this inuyoukai girl doesn't have some parent rushing after her? Let's say from the Western Lands perhaps? Her scent is familiar to me," his words slowed, growing openly suspicious, "It rather reminds me of a certain inuyoukai named __**Sesshomaru**. Coincidentally he has **golden eyes** too and he's fond of human females I've heard. You wouldn't bring me that kind of girl, would you Umidori?"_


	13. The Seagull and the Albatross

A/N: Today (April 22 08) we finally got our first real rainstorm. Not a drizzly, foggy and cold mess, but a warm, sweet rain. The seagulls are squawking in the parking lot outside my apartment, the wind blows occasionally. Someone is making an ungodly noise doing construction. Great inspiration for a piece that's meant to be written in summer. Unfortunately for us this isn't really summer yet. Snow for this weekend...

Disclaimer: I do not own.

Last Chapter: Koinu survived his dip and IY took him out hunting because he claimed Koinu looked too pale. While they were away and Sango's sons were taking Iruka's severed head to Gakemachi, another whale demon appeared called Hakugei. His name has appeared in the story before: check out the chapter called Reunion and the Ningyo. Hakugei was Iruka's father. He punished the women for killing Iruka. He sent them away via a seabird named Umidori. West and inland.

* * *

**The Seagull and the Albatross**

Akisame woke with a jolt. Her body tensed, her head throbbed. There was something pressed against her face. It was wet and soft. The smell was acrid and foul. She pawed at it viciously, batting it away. When it was removed Akisame breathed deeply and choked on the remaining stench. She tried to wipe at her nose but a large, blurry shape moved in front of her and suddenly she felt a fierce, hard grip close over her wrists, stilling them.

"Where am I? What's going on?" she demanded, her chest heaved and she fought to keep herself from gagging on the lingering taste and smell in her mouth.

Voices spoke around her. "Umidori! This is far from your usual fodder! Where did you get this one?"

The speaker was smooth, his voice like velvet. Akisame squinted, trying to force her eyes to see clearly. The first speaker was sitting somewhere ahead of her. Her eyesight swam blearily into focus. She was on a tatami floor, lying on her side. The matting was a creamy, rich white and soft on her cheek. The speaker was above her line of sight, seated on a platform where he could view her without Akisame seeing him, like royalty.

The second speaker, Umidori, spoke with a high, whining voice that grated on her ears like pottery breaking, or metal scraping metal. "Seizansha! The east coast!"

_How did I get here?_ She searched her memories. She recalled heat, the roar of ocean surf and the salty stink of its waves and the odor of old, dried fish. Aside from small images and little half-memories of faces of people that she _must have known_ there was nothing. She remembered her name but almost nothing else. She did not know that she was the only daughter of _Inuyasha_, the infamous, immortal legend. She did not know that she was the daughter of a powerful miko. She did not know that she had been born in a hospital, five hundred years into the future. She did not know that she had a brother that was thinking about her on the east coast of Japan.

"Sit her up for me," the first speaker ordered.

The grip over her wrists pulled and the world spun crazily for a moment as Akisame found herself sitting upright. She swayed, leaning against the restraining grip of her captor, breathing steadily but awkwardly with uneven breaths, as if she'd forgotten that it was a natural action that she'd done all her life. When she strained her eyes, narrowing them, she saw the first speaker sitting on his platform. His hair was bright, vibrant red. It flowed like a cape down his back. His lips were thin, his eyes green and cruel. He examined her at the same time that she watched him. Slowly his thin lips curled into a wide grin.

"Umidori! For once you've outdone yourself! This beauty is the perfect age! Barely a woman, still a girl, and she isn't half-starved or dying like all the other whelps and bitches you bring me. A fine vixen." He got to his feet and stepped from his platform, approaching her.

Akisame saw her captor, the creature holding her wrists, step aside, releasing her. The flash of an image, the moment of clarity she got as she saw Umidori made her stomach lurch. His hands were orange and scaled. There were feathers around his face, white and gray. His eyes were a bloodshot red. He squawked at the other, red-haired creature, asking, "You like? You like?"

The other man had paused before Akisame, only a few feet from her. Akisame looked between her captors unashamedly. The anger rose inside of her, brash and powerful, a trait that her father had passed onto her and that Akisame had never bothered to restrain. It gave her strength. Neither man was holding onto her and so she lashed out at the red-haired man. She slashed with one clawed hand at his red and black robes, snarling and yelling with noises that almost sounded like barking.

The red haired man took one step back, allowing Akisame's claws to tear his robe but not his flesh. As Akisame fell over from the momentum of her first blow, the red-haired man knelt and snatched both her hands in his own. Akisame made a small noise of surprise and twisted her legs around, trying to kick him. The man pulled her closer and stepped over her, straddling her like a horse. He plopped his full weight onto her belly and Akisame choked, scrabbling at his thighs, trying to push him off her. Her eyes were wide, terrified at the compression of her chest by his added weight. _I can't breathe!_

"A beautiful bitch!" he exclaimed, sounding proud as if she were his prodigy or his child. "Look at her eyes! Umidori you blessed fool, you've brought me an _inuyoukai bitch!"_

"Good? Is good?" Umidori asked, screeching.

"It's delightful! Just…" he squinted at Akisame's pale, gasping face and sniffed loudly, "_Where_ did you get her?"

"Seizansha. East coast village," Umidori replied, immediately, much like a parrot. The answer was thoughtless, unconcerned.

"You couldn't have gotten this bitch from a _human_ settlement. She's part _dog._ Umidori—be honest with me. I can't have the inuyoukai clan come after me because some flea-bitten bird has sold me someone's precious mongrel daughter."

"From humans!" the bird screeched, "She look human! Is human! Is good!"

The red-haired man snarled. "I forgot. Birds can't smell." He rolled his eyes and, seeing that Akisame was beginning to weaken, he got up and backed away from her.

Akisame curled into a fetal position, breathing hard, panting. She closed her eyes, whimpering and wrapping her arms around her chest. Her long black hair fell around her and Akisame welcomed it, hiding her face behind it.

"You usually bring me carrion fodder, Umidori. How did you get your webbed claws on this healthy bitch?"

"Hakugei!" Umidori answered, cawing. "She is demon slayer."

"A demon slayer?" the man grunted, intrigued. "Well she's only _part _inuyoukai. She's mostly human. What about this other one? She looks well-fed! Wake her up for me."

In a moment Akisame heard more choking sounds and then, abruptly, a gagging, retching cough. The other victim of Umidori and the red-haired man was vomiting. Akisame shivered weakly and tried to push herself upright, to turn and see the other captive. Perhaps seeing the other woman would give her answers to her own plight.

The red-haired man and the feathered man Umidori were crouched, blocking Akisame's view of the other captive. The red-haired man grumbled about the vomit. "Disgusting. This one's not as fine of a catch. Sickly…and she's older."

"I sorry! I sorry!" Umidori flapped his arms; his feathers fluffed and stuck up.

"What is this she's wearing? _Armor?"_

"I no know. I no know."

The red-haired man shifted and at last Akisame saw the other woman as she was hauled upright, shaking and weak. The woman had long, brownish hair tied back tightly at the top of her head. She was older, a mature woman with a full figure, breasts and hips, but her waist was still narrow. Muscles bunched up beneath her black body suit. Her armor was soft and pliable, shifting noiselessly as she was forced into a sitting position on the mat. When she opened her eyes they were a rich, earthy brown.

"She _is_ a slayer! I was wrong, Umidori. She's a fine catch after all!" The red-haired man gripped the other woman by the chin and turned her to face him as he examined her face and sniffed at her skin. "Ah! She's pregnant! That's why she vomited. Even better! A fine woman!"

"Fine!" Umidori agreed; his voice rose to new, exalted heights of grating and annoying. "Fine! Fine, Fine! Fine!"

"I'll take them both." The man slapped his hands together and footsteps filled the room, echoing from the wooden walls and screens as at least twenty human men, servants in light armor, rushed into the room. "Come with me, Umidori. Let my servants take care of the ladies. We shall discuss payment now."

Rough hands grabbed Akisame by the arms and she retaliated immediately. Whirling around she ripped her arms free from their grasp and slashed blindly. One of the men screamed, long and filled with agony. His arm fell to the matting, thumping dully. Blood gushed, splattering the immaculate white floor and spraying over Akisame's face, hair, and her robes. The other men backed away, gasping.

Somewhere behind Akisame, on his platform beside the fidgeting bird man, the red-haired man sighed distastefully. "Oh shit."

Breathing hard, standing only shakily, Akisame turned in little circles. She held her hands up defensively, the claws turned outward, ready to taste more blood. But the smell of the man's severed arm, the rich, hot red stink of it, was sickening her. Akisame closed her throat, trying not to vomit like the other woman had. She watched the men around her and in particular she eyed the red-haired man, anticipating that he would be the one to stop her.

"I forgot to warn them," the red-haired man groaned, almost tiredly and then shouted to the men surrounding Akisame and the other woman, the demon slayer, his newest pieces of property. "The young one there is part-demon. You'll need to dart her."

"Who are you people?" Akisame demanded, showing her teeth viciously. "I just want to get out of here!" She swallowed the bile in her throat when her foot landed in some pooled blood. "I—I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt any…"

One of the men moved, stepping forward. Akisame turned to face him at the same moment that she saw him lift a small hollow bamboo shoot to his lips. _A dart._ Akisame threw herself into the midst of the men, kicking and clawing. The dart flew past her, missing her entirely. The men cursed and tried to scatter but there were too many of them. Some of them were left standing in Akisame'e way.

More blood splattered and sprayed, more screams erupted. Akisame tumbled out the back of the group and ran for the sliding doors. Rather than bothering to open them she lowered her body into a crouch and rammed the doors with her shoulder. The thin, decorative wood and paper split wide, spilling her blood-stained body into the hallway beyond.

The unwounded men hurried after her, shouting. The red-haired man ordered three of them to stay where they were, hovering protectively over the shaken, weak demon slayer instead. Umidori fidgeted at the man's side, snapping his jaws together rhythmically.

"I sorry! Ratsuwan, I sorry!" he announced, apologizing for the way that his _product_ had slaughtered the other man's servants and run out the door.

The man shrugged uncaringly. "It's not over yet, Umidori. I'm sure Kiremono will catch her." He pinned the bird man with a careful, slightly irritated glare. "You're sure this inuyoukai girl doesn't have some parent rushing after her? Let's say from the Western Lands perhaps? Her scent is familiar to me," his words slowed, growing openly suspicious, "It rather reminds me of a certain inuyoukai named _Sesshomaru._ Coincidentally he has _golden eyes_ too and he's fond of human females I've heard. You wouldn't bring me that kind of girl, would you Umidori?"

The bird's eyes were wide and unblinking. He had no idea what kind of answer was appropriate for the question. The explanation was too long-winded. He'd heard of Sesshomaru, but he couldn't see how the girl and the inuyoukai lord were related. Sesshomaru was tall and had white hair. The girl he'd brought was human as far as he was concerned. At last he guessed and answered, "Yes?"

Ratuswan rolled his green eyes heavenward. "Even monkey youkai are better than you seabirds. You have no idea where this girl came from, do you?"

"I no know! I no know!" Umidori agreed, ducking his head several times in a chicken-like bobbing that was meant to be a bow or perhaps nodding. It came off as only comical.

Ratsuwan gestured to the men standing over the demon slayer. "Take that one to Eigo. Tell her to save the armor and the bodysuit with this woman. Go."

The men bowed and picked up the demon slayer, who was already beginning to drift back into unconsciousness. They carried her gently out of the audience room, stepping over the severed hand, the pools of blood, and two other men that were struggling to overcome their pain from Akisame's slash wounds.

* * *

Akisame found an exit. She slid the doors wide open and stumbled out into a rocky Zen garden. Finely trimmed shrubs grew alongside the door and at the center of the rocks. Akisame stared at the lines in the sand, the rocks scattered about. She was breathing hard; her small, thin robes and peasant pants were tattered and covered in others' blood.

She didn't belong in a Zen garden. She wondered again: _Where am I? Where have I been? How did I get here from there?_

There was no immediate scent of the ocean and the air was cooler, calm and gentle. It was _not_ where she had been, though Akisame wasn't sure of where that had been anyway.

The halls that she'd run through were labyrinthine, filled with little boxy rooms, decorative screens and paintings, but Akisame hadn't seen larger rooms. No kitchens, no eating rooms, and no libraries or studying rooms. It was, though Akisame had never seen such a thing before, like a dorm hall. Although the halls had been beautiful, when Akisame had ducked into one of the rooms to catch her breath and hide in the darkness from the men pursuing her, she'd noticed a faint, foul odor in the rooms. A sweat-smell, a lingering, tangy sweetness. Male and female odors that she vaguely recognized as being _sexual_ in nature. The scent, though hidden by perfumes, had driven her mad with fear; as if she were locked inside a closet with those smells, unable to escape them.

She breathed the outside air hungrily, relishing it. The opulent scent of pine lingered in the air here. Akisame advanced fearlessly onto the Zen garden, trampling the smooth lines, even kicking at a rock.

A voice startled her, making her immediately drop into a crouched, defensive position.

"Oh no! Darling, what have you done to the garden?" The owner of the voice was a woman dressed in a thick, ornate kimono. She rose to her full height from behind some green, piney shrubs. Her skin was pale like porcelain, her hair was silver but her eyes were the same green shade as the red-haired man that Akisame had just escaped from.

Akisame's body tensed, her battle-stance didn't drop. "Who are you? What is this place?"

"A Zen garden sweetling." The woman shook her head and continued her approach. Her smile was sad; her green eyes however were bright, cunning and intelligent. "You've never seen one before? Where are you from?"

The question jolted Akisame. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the sudden surge of fear threatening to overwhelm her. _I'm alone. I haven't always been…_her heart wanted to search for the faces of those faintly-remembered companions, but her mind shied away from it, understanding that it would distract her and now was not the time to mourn or panic.

She reissued one of her questions to the woman approaching her, shouting, "Who are you?"

"My name is Kiremono, darling. What's yours? You're such a beautiful girl. What a shame! Your clothes are filthy! A gorgeous darling like you shouldn't be wearing such rags and filth."

Akisame shifted, taking a step back, lifting her hands up defensively. She flexed her claws, showing them off to the other woman. "Stay back! I'm warning you!"

"There's no need to fear me, sweetie," Kiremono purred, smiling. "I'm here to take care of you. Just like your mother would. Now tell me, what's your name, precious?"

_Mother._ Akisame's heart constricted, burning in her chest. Her eyes flooded with salty moisture, blinding her for a moment. She blinked and shook her head, trying to dispel the image of a woman with whom she shared several features: her black hair, the shape of her eyes…

Kiremono was behind her suddenly, instantaneously. The teleportation startled Akisame, but not completely. Even as she turned to face her female attacker, Akisame realized that _she had known someone that teleported._ Kiremono's scent filled her nose and Akisame saw green eyes, light red-brown hair, a boyish face and little canines. A puffy tail like a bundle of discolored cotton balls. She could even hear his voice saying her name, and the first syllable of his name…Shi…

Kiremono was a _kitsune._ Akisame knew this and then the fox demon's clawed fingers were at her throat pressing. The color leeched out of the world and Akisame dropped to the lined sand of the Zen garden, unconscious.

* * *

(A/N: In this next part I'm using the short-tailed Albatross as my bird species. Before Umidori was a seagull I imagined. This one is I've chosen after more research into seabirds. The short-tailed albatross lives in the north Pacific and breeds on a Japanese island. It was declared extinct after people hunted it ruthlessly for its feathers. That was in 1949. Hunting was banned but it appeared too late as there were no birds breeding on the island. As it turned out juveniles, about 50 of them, had survived out at sea and a few years later when they returned they started breeding again in 1954. Thank you to Wikipedia for that information.)

Several miles north, on a cliff overlooking the sea, a massive bird with long, slender wings sailed in over the shoreline. It was white with black wings, though its head and neck were a yellowish color and its beak a startling duet of pastels: purple with a blue tip. It appeared to be a short-tailed albatross, though it would not have that name for several centuries to come. It was not actually an albatross; it was a seabird youkai, masquerading in its true form.

It was truly a monster. Normally, in the natural world, the largest albatross would take the cake for the longest wingspan at about 11 feet across. However, this was not a natural creature. It had the markings of a short-tailed albatross, but its wingspan was as much as seven times the natural max length of the largest albatross. Also, unlike most seabirds, this youkai bird was able to clutch prey in its massive claws. Those claws were currently full and had been for several hours of flying time.

The shrine gates atop the mountain appeared at last. The albatross arched her wings and slowed. She slowed with a flick of her tail feathers. Slowly she descended in a controlled landing. Barely flapping her massive wings—when she did it sent a whirlwind away that leveled trees and stirred up eddies of dust-devils and debris—she came within a few feet of the ground and dropped the contents of her webbed, clawed feet gently to the dirt and grass.

As soon as her cargo had landed, the albatross shrunk. A gray cloud formed around her, massive feathers fell away and crumbled into dust. When she stood upright she was no longer a bird, but a woman. Her eyes were large and dark black, beady as Iruka's had been. Her upper lip was purple, her lower lip blue. Her hair was white, light and feathery though unlike Umidori she actually had hair, not feathers.

She was standing at the entryway to the shrine, waiting.

In a moment, hurrying down the steps beyond the gate, a small young man dressed in a monk's garb appeared. He bowed at her feet.

"Get your master," the albatross woman ordered. Her voice was deep, almost husky.

"Who calls on Master Dani?" the young monk asked.

"Tell him Kaichou has come with presents from Umidori."

The youngster looked up at her, his mouth falling open in shock. A mild anger burned in his brown eyes. "Umidori?"

"No, my name is Kaichou." She corrected him, blandly. "Go tell _Master_ Dani that I have his latest servants with me."

The boy's chin quivered, he bit his lip and bowed. He hurried away. Kaichou watched him go, narrowing her beady black eyes. She hadn't missed the way the way his fingers and hands had quivered when he'd bowed before her, the wobbliness when he got to his feet. The boy was anemic, as all of Master Dani's servants were. All of them wanted to escape from his clutches, but all of them were powerless to do it.

The women, unconscious and dirty at Kaichou's feet, would soon be no different.

Kaichou had been waylaid by Umidori further south while she was on her way to preside over the albatross breeding colony on an island there. The seagull had promised to put in a good word for her with Hakugei the whale god if she carried the two women to Master Dani. Kaichou had done it before; she saw no reason why she couldn't add this latest sin. If it would please Hakugei, who could make his whale and dolphin underlings work with her, herding fish close to the surface for easy hunting, than it was worth it. Kaichou could never have enough fish and she was not fond of humans, sailors often killed her kind for sport or for food while they were at sea, stealing the same fish.

If the two women at her feet had committed some offense to the whale god she would punish them exactly as Umidori asked.

At last Master Dani appeared, descending the steps from the temple. His robes were brownish-red, wide as if he were portly underneath. He appeared as a middle aged man, bald except for a few whiskers around his mouth, in his ears, and on his hands. His eyes were tiny, hidden behind his hawkish nose and fat, bulbous lips. To any human he was repulsive, a disgusting mishmash of features. It probably wouldn't have surprised many humans that Master Dani was not human. He was a parasite, a plague, a man in charge of a disguised prison.

He reached her and smiled. His teeth were small but pointy, like the inside of a large fish's mouth: tiny but needlelike. "Kaichou, you have brought me gifts from Umidori?"

"Yes, these are from him." Kaichou gestured at her feet uncaringly.

"Ah," Master Dani sighed, nodding. "Lift them up; I want to see them more closely. It's hard to greet my latest disciples when they are lying sleeping in the dirt."

Kaichou did as he asked, kneeling and hauling one of the women up to Master Dani's level. The woman was mature though there was no true sign of gray in her black hair. Master Dani grinned, exposing his ugly teeth. "I will have to savor this one—a miko." He pointed behind Kaichou, "Hand me this one and show me the younger girl."

Kaichou did as he asked, passing off the mortal woman to Master Dani. The body was limp and long-legged in his stubby, plump arms. While Kaichou was turned away, gathering up his younger victim in her arms, Master Dani pried open the woman's eyelid. The woman slumped in his arms, with her hair falling backward wildly in a black mess like a tangled fishing net, had brown eyes like all of his disciples, but Master Dani felt something _odd_ about her. He had a sense of smell that rivaled the best inuyoukai's and with it he'd picked out a disturbing odor lingering on these women.

Uncertainly Master Dani combed his fingers through the woman's hair, feeling the texture. After a moment he brought his fingers up to his nose and inhaled deeply. The scent was flowery but there was something harsh to it as well, acrid. It was a chemical smell that he had never run across before…

"Are you unhappy with them?" Kaichou asked, seeing his face.

Master Dani blanked his expression. "No, they're fine. This one has an odd smell in her hair. And…" he craned his neck and peeked at her feet. "Those shoes…"

Kaichou, unfamiliar with the customs and styles of the mainland or of Japan, shrugged uncaringly again. She walked closer to Master Dani and held out the younger woman to him. This girl had longer, straighter black hair. It was not worn loose, but rather tied in a loop atop her head. It had partially come loose during their flight and the landing, turning into a messy ponytail instead. She was also wearing different clothes, not a robe that hid her frame, but a black bodysuit that hugged her every line, accentuating her long legs and the still subtle flair of hips and breasts.

Master Dani licked his lips and nodded. "She is more my usual fair. I will take them both for now. I may have to kill this older one; she makes me…uneasy…"

Kaichou nodded blandly. "I'll carry this one and you can carry that one."

"You're in a hurry dear Kaichou. Do these women unnerve you as well?"

Kaichou paused, thinking on it. There was _something_ about both of them that bothered her. It had nothing to do with scent though and everything to do with the power that resided in both the young and the middle aged woman. She only vaguely knew of spiritual powers, that they were a threat to her because that energy clashed with her own demonic wavelength…she made a decision and shook her head. "No, it's not them. Umidori caught me when I was heading to Torishima Island."

"Breeding season," Master Dani said. He turned his back on her and began scaling the stairs, straining to take each step. Kaichou followed behind him impatiently with her slightly lighter load. It helped that Kaichou had long slender legs in her bipedal form; Master Dani had short, stubby legs. _Four of them._ The bald, monk-lookalike had a massive, bulky robe—colored brown-red—that concealed his extra limbs. Only the first set of his short arms were exposed with his wiry, knobby hands covered in their bristly hair like an old man's.

It was not the hair of a mammal, rather of something else…

The shrine at the top of the stairs was spread out over the forested mountain top and hillside. Cultivated gardens grew food for the monks. A small stone-studded pond filled with orange koi stood out in one corner near the sleeping chambers. Kaichou and Master Dani passed by numerous monks and Shinto priestesses, all of them of various ages. All of them had dreamed of serving their respective religion, of devoting themselves to their particular cause. Now they were confined to the bizarre, parasitic shrine that appeared normal outwardly, even down to the worship that took place regularly, but was not normal because of the cult nature that lived underneath, festering.

The priestesses, priests, and monks averted their eyes from Kaichou, Master Dani, and the latest arrivals—victims. The spaces beneath their eyes were gray and hollow. Their cheekbones stuck out, the muscles of their necks were corded and the tiniest bones in their hands stood out skeletally. They were being eaten from the inside out.

Master Dani and Kaichou entered a small room that was open to the air. It might once have been a training hall for physical exercise, but now it was abandoned and unused. The monks that otherwise might've practiced there were too weak to wield their poles or swords, even their own fists.

Master Dani set his burden onto the floor, arranging her limbs and straightening her robes out. Kaichou followed suit though she made no effort at all to fix the younger girl's hair or clothes or even her limps. She waited until Master Dani sighed and closed his eyes, sitting between his two latest victims and breathing deeply, like a tired, drained old man.

"Can I go?" Kaichou asked.

"Certainly you may. I know this place makes many youkai uncomfortable. So much spiritual energy, so much for all of you to fear. But I have a reward for you, Kaichou, if you'll stay long enough for me to get it."

Kaichou hesitated, tempted. At last she sat down behind Master Dani and agreed. "I'll wait, but not long. I have to journey south."

"That is fine. I have already summoned him. He will be here shortly."

"He?" Kaichou repeated, confused. Why would Master Dani give her a _boy_ as a present? "I don't eat human flesh…"

"I understand that," Master Dani replied, curtly. "Just wait and you will be rewarded. You will see why Umidori and Hakugei bring me treats like these…" he reached over with both hands to touch the unconscious women's foreheads and run his fingers through their black hair.

Two long minutes passed before Kaichou spotted a teenager walking toward them, dressed in the robes of a monk. The robes engulfed his body like the kazana in Miroku's hand had once threatened to swallow him. But this teen would not survive to defeat his foes, get married and make a family. His life was forfeit. It was entirely likely that he was too emaciated to recover fully from his stay at the bizarre shrine-temple anyway…

The boy slowly, shakily climbed the stairs and walked over the wooden floor. He knelt in front of Master Dani and turned his head away. His shoulders were shaking, his eyes were squeezed tightly closed, but slipping out from under the lids, tears oozed, thick and salty, like the slimy sodium chloride that oozed out of a seabird's nasal glands, eliminating excess salt from their bodies. But the boy's tears were not a natural release, the tears were thick and crusty because his body was giving up and all the water he consumed in a day was going elsewhere…

Grunting, Master Dani reached for the boy and pulled him close as if to embrace him. He jerked the boy's head to one side and bit into his neck as if he were biting into a juicy apple or plum. The boy's body tensed, stiffening. He made small noises of pain and then, abruptly, exploded into panic. Screeching, he pounded his weak, shrunken fists onto Master Dani's body. It did him no good. Blood dribbled down onto the wood between them, dotting the Master's robes as well as the boy's. The boy's robes were dark blue, just as the first boy's that Kaichou had seen come down to greet her.

The boy began to convulse. His eyes snapped open and then drooped closed. His eyes rolled backward, showing only the whites. Kaichou looked away from the scene, disgusted. She was glad that, as a seabird, she had little or no sense of smell. She couldn't smell the blood, excrement, or agony of the boy as he died.

Finally the boy went limp and Master Dani pushed him away gently, laying him out as if he were sleeping. He dabbed at the blood that had dripped onto the wooden floor and brought it to his lips, tasting it. "I never tire of the burning sensation it gives me, Kaichou." Master Dani moaned, wiping around his mouth and licking his fingers. "Their spiritual powers make their blood tingle in my mouth..."

"If that's all there is," Kaichou began, "I'll be leaving."

"No that's certainly not it! I told you I had a present for you. I'm sorry you had to see that, but to get it, well, I wasn't going to waste his blood!" the Master chuckled as if the thought were quietly hilarious and he would have a great belly-laugh about it later privately. "This is what you came for…"

Master Dani pulled back his sleeve and, without warning, plunged his hand into the dead boy's gut. He pulled and ripped flesh out, searching for something. He piled the nasty bits of bloodied meat on top of the dead boy's chest, making a sick red mountain of gray entrails and red muscle. Finally he pulled out his fist and wiped something off. It was a small white stone, almost a ball.

The Master turned from his gruesome kill and passed the white stone to Kaichou with his bloodied fingers. Kaichou hesitated, staring blankly at the offering.

"Don't be afraid. This is a precious gift to any youkai. I am immune to their spiritual energy—that is why I feed on it. This stone will repel any spiritual attack made against you. It is the remains of my saliva. Every one of my disciples grows one after I have fed on them for a few years. It will repel spiritual attacks for at least ten years. All you must do is wear it…"

Kaichou nodded and took the stone, clutching it tightly in her palm. "Thank you Master Dani, you are too kind." She excused herself and left him, passing quickly through the shrine and temple while at the same time trying to look as though she weren't actually desperate to escape. At last, outside of the gate and after descending the stairs, Kaichou threw the stone out into the wind, straight off the cliff. It sailed in the wind for a moment, caught by it, and then plummeted, going beyond Kaichou's sight. The stones were why Umidori and Hakugei helped parasites like _Master_ Dani. Kaichou contemplated taking on her true form and swooping over the shrine to pick Master Dani out of his safe spot and swallow him whole just as she or any other bird would pick off the lice that clung to their feathers in the summertime.

But there were more important things in her life—like getting to Torishima Island. She ran at the cliff, as if ready to follow the stone that she had tossed away, to die or shatter on the rocks, but as her body entered the air it transformed. She took wing, sailing off not as a massive albatross with an impossible wingspan of over seventy feet, but as a small bird with only a nine foot wingspan. She skimmed over the ocean, searching for food, heading south.

Sitting back in his open-aired room on the hard wooden floor, Master Dani palmed a handful of the boy's intestines and bit into it, searching for more blood and nutrients. He looked between the two women laying peacefully on either side of him and tried to come to terms with the unease he felt about one of them—or was it both? He realized that he had not checked the eyes of the other, younger girl.

With his bloody, dirty hand he reached out and cupped the girl's cheek. She was beautiful, though still very young. The baby fat had left her face, making her look leaner than she was. Almost by smell Master Dani could pick out her spiritual energy: like that of a monk rather than a miko. He would dress her as a priestess and have her worship as if she belonged there, even though her aura belonged with the Buddha. Curiously he noted the faint specks on her cheeks, the remnants of childhood freckles—an uncommon trait…

Master Dani removed his hand from her face, scowling at the bloody handprint he'd left. He continued staring at the younger girl's face as he bit into the intestine again, slurping on it. At last, while he was chewing and swallowing, he reached out and pried open her eyelid with his thumb.

Her eyes were violet-blue. _Violet…_

Aghast, Master Dani nearly choked on his foul mouthful of intestine as he checked her other eye just to be sure. _Violet. _He was not imagining it. Kaichou had brought him the sign he'd longed for and at once dreaded for close to a hundred years now.

All parasites have cycles of life and death. Master Dani's next cycle was heralded as beginning when he received a disciple with _violet_ eyes.

It was time for him to spawn.

* * *

A/N: It seemed to me that Kohaku had freckles; a trait I think is uncommon in people of Asian descent unless there's been some European influence. And violet eyes from Miroku…that's just weird.

Next time:

_Sango felt her limbs growing heavier. It became a burden for her to hold her arms against her breasts, supporting them. She shook her head, fighting dizziness. "My name is…"_

"_Yes?" Eigo had reached her now and was touching her shoulder, rubbing it as if she were a mother or a sister, comforting a sick family member. _

_Sango flinched from the touch at first but then relaxed; giving in. "My name is Sango."_

"_A fine, beautiful name, Sango." Eigo relished the name, repeating it quietly several times, as if committing it to memory. "Come Sango; let me wash all of this dirt off you. I'll make you beautiful." _


	14. Two Mothers

A/N: So for this story I tried to educate myself more thoroughly on Japan's climate and geography. Except for the mountains it's similar-ish to where I live because I am on a peninsula and no single spot here is far from one of the Great Lakes. Really, I do forget how beautiful it is to be able to just drive in whatever direction I choose and run into one of those natural wonders. We take them for granted on our peninsula. Japan has got to be even better because it's the actual ocean we're talking about, coupled with mountains (I love mountains!) so mountainous that the people don't live in the interior. Crammed like sardines on the coasts…makes me glad that my peninsula lets me live with more space. Anyway, I read that altogether Japan is about the size of Montana. It really brings home how much space we have in the US and that's why we are addicted to oil.

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last Chapter: Aki woke up with the seabird Umidori trying to sell her to the red-haired dude Ratsuwan. She fought her way out and escaped only to be subdued by a kitsune woman named Kiremono. She can't remember clearly who she is, just her name. She didn't even recognize Sango who was with her. An albatross demon named Kaichou turned over Kagome and Kasai to a strange "monk" named Master Dani. He killed one of his "disciples" for her and then gave her something from his victim's gut, a stone that would make her immune to spiritual attacks. After Kaichou had left him with Kagome and Kasai Master Dani checked Kasai's eye color and discovered that it was violet-blue, which _means_ something special to him.

* * *

**Two Mothers**

Masuyo kept the brothers moving. Tisoki and Kohimu, drawn by the sights and sounds of the foreign city of Gakemachi, were tempted to languish in the settlement. Masuyo encouraged them to continue their journey because he knew that their mother wasn't feeling all that well and he was anxious being away from her and delaying their trip home. It was because of Masuyo's pressure to keep them moving that Sango's sons met up with Inuyasha, Koinu, and Shippo only a day after they had set out with Iruka's head.

After the news of the abduction was exchanged, a swift plan of attack was devised between Sango's three sons. They would travel west with Inuyasha, Koinu, and Shippo as one large group until their paths diverged near the demon slayer's village. At that point they would stop to speak with their father, filling Miroku in on the situation at last.

Inuyasha made it clear that he wouldn't wait for them to meet with Miroku or even to make their slight detour to stop at the village. The hanyou was goal-driven, determined to find his wife and daughter. If he found Kasai and Sango while he was looking, well that was great too, but his priority remained Kagome and Akisame. He stuck to this unabashedly. If Koinu or Shippo had objected they would've instantly found themselves traveling with Sango's sons after the split. Neither fought with Inuyasha's determination and single-mindedness. It was deserved in the situation and accepted.

They debated the details of their upcoming journeys as they traveled. Planning was a way of ignoring their missing mothers and sisters. Inuyasha led them, walking alone.

Shippo dropped a bomb early on. He had mostly regained his hearing, though because it was slightly muted he continued to speak louder than he needed to. "We could ask for Lord Shimofuri's help."

"No," Inuyasha snapped without even considering the suggestion. "I don't want to owe any of those bastards anything."

"Actually they owe _you,"_ Shippo pointed out, calling out to Inuyasha's back up ahead. The hanyou's ears didn't even twist back to acknowledge the kit's words.

"Who?" Masuyo asked, walking at Shippo's side. The two were roughly the same height and that made them natural friends and travel partners. Masuyo had yet to reach the growth spurt that had given his older brothers their height—which was taller than Miroku—and Shippo was _not_ really a boy by human age standards but it did seem to be about his maturity level.

"He's the ruler of the Middle Lands. An inuyoukai lord." Shippo pointed toward Inuyasha, jabbing with one finger, "They're related. You weren't born when we first met him."

"Oh." Masuyo frowned, glancing curiously to his brothers who were lagging behind. "Did you guys meet him?"

Tisoki and Kohimu, for one of the few moments in their lives, had traveled mostly in silence. Neither answered Masuyo, they were wrapped in their own fierce but quiet discussion; analyzing the little information they had about the youkai that had taken away their mother and their sister. Kohimu moved his hands in sharp, violent gestures, cutting his younger brother Tisoki off. They were tense and angry, disagreeing about something.

Masuyo sighed and fished through his robes, pulling out the weapon that he had brought for this particular hunt before he'd been confined to the fish-hut just because he had been vulnerable in this case. His weapon was a sling made of fabric and fibrous plant tissue, flexible and strong. Masuyo carried a sack of suitable stones that he would use as projectiles. He collected the stones, always scuffing at the ground while he walked, searching for more. Also in his sack were sharp, flattened bone pieces, made from leftover chippings from Kohimu and Tisoki's incessant carving. The sling was an easy weapon that required less strength than the bow, but it was a difficult weapon nonetheless. Aiming the blows was difficult and in practice Masuyo could easily harm himself or kill a sibling or parents with a stone that slipped out at the wrong time.

He pulled out a few of the stones, digging down to the bottom of the bag, and examined them while Kohimu and Tisoki fought behind him and Shippo and Inuyasha bickered about asking for help. Sango had helped him find these first few stones. She had been heavily pregnant with his littlest brother Koudo. Though she was tired and near her time, she had had the strength to wander over the road outside of their village, rifling through the dirt with her toes and her fingertips. She picked out the proper sized rocks and showed Masuyo how to load them into the sling. To make sure that Masuyo always picked out decent stones, the boy kept the first few that Sango had picked out for him. Whenever he was uncertain of new stones, he pulled the first ones out and thought of Sango's first lessons.

Kohimu, Tisoki, and Kasai each had their specialized weapons, as did both of Masuyo's parents. But by the time Masuyo had grown old enough to wield a weapon, he'd run out of options. He showed a flair for archery but Kohimu couldn't tolerate the competition and ridiculed his little brother until Masuyo gave up. Kasai encouraged Masuyo to work with a sword, but the boy wasn't as interested in that weapon. He liked the sickle and sometimes used it, though Tisoki had always been better at it. In the end it was Sango that came decided to try her son on every different weapon, to let him be a jack of all trades.

Masuyo palmed the first three stones that he'd saved and thought worryingly of his mother. She was sick somewhere, without her family. What was she doing? Would she be safe until they came and rescued her?

Staring at Inuyasha, who led them stiffly like a bull elephant guiding his bachelor herd over the African savanna, Masuyo found himself filled with a selfish thought that shamed him. _I pray that we find Mom first. Mamma,_ he blinked, suddenly feeling his eyes smart with moisture, _Mom, be safe and be strong. We're coming for you. Aunt Kagome has spiritual power and so does Kasai, and Akisame is part inuyoukai. Mamma is strong but…_he couldn't shake the image of his mother doubled over and vomiting into the sand. When he looked between solid, powerful Inuyasha and the sulking, quiet Koinu walking halfway between his father and Masuyo, the shame smashed into him.

Masuyo rolled the rocks about in his palm and focused on his mother's face.

* * *

Sango woke up gradually. Her hearing returned first, and then her eyesight. She blinked and took in the world around her—unfamiliar and foreign.

She was lying on a flattened, poor-quality futon. There was only a small scratchy blanket over her. And she was naked.

Alarmed, Sango's body tensed and she sat up, clutching the blanket around herself with one hand and searching around her bed with the other for a weapon. Her hair, lose and brownish-black, fell around her face, wild and uncombed. She caught sight of a bit of straw in her hair and felt the scratchiness of sand on her skin and on her hands and feet. She was dirty, in need of a bath.

The room around her was small and filled with floral and spicy aromas. The combination sickened Sango and she swallowed the surge of nausea that rushed through her. The walls were wooden and unadorned. The tops were made of yellowed paper, which allowed light to pass partly through them and let Sango see the shadows of people as they passed by. There was a wooden tub in the room, a bath steaming with hot water.

In the farthest corner from her, Sango saw a black bodysuit and pink armor. She recognized it as her own and got up, starting for it. Dizziness assaulted her the moment she left the futon. She closed her eyes, swaying unsteadily, and clutched the scratchy gray blanket closer to her body, covering her breasts and her long legs in a flowing ugly drape.

A rattling, scratching sound made Sango turned on her heel to her right. One of the walls was actually a sliding door, identified only by the small handle on one end. The door had been opened and a woman was stepping inside.

With confidence and strength that Sango didn't know she possessed, she crossed the room, dropping the blanket as she went, and wrapped her hands around the woman's throat in a chokehold. The woman reacted immediately, gasping and then twisting and sending her arms backward and out, hitting Sango squarely in the stomach. Sango released her and crumpled, grabbing her stomach and doubling over as she fought the resurgence of bile swarming into her throat.

"You're awake," the woman spoke with a small, gentle voice. "Brother was right about you. I'm sorry I left you that way, it was very rude of me."

Sango gnashed her teeth, ignoring the pain in her gut in favor of opening her eyes and observing her captor. The woman before her was wearing petite white socks that buttoned at the sides and silky, orange pants. Though the clothes were rich and made of silk they were unadorned and simple and the color was gaudy.

A voice inside Sango's head, one that she didn't know and didn't understand, was tallying things, analyzing the room and her captor. She found herself focusing on the socks, narrowing her eyes, trying to guess something about the woman's identity.

Like Akisame before her, Sango had little to no memory of where she had come from or who she was. She knew her name, but she didn't know that she was a demon slayer. The obsessive voice inside her mind, taking in the details and looking them over with a microscope, was the internalized voice of her father, her mother, and all of the demon slayers of her village that had taught her as a girl. She needed to know whether her captor was human or demon, and if it was the latter, what kind of demon it was. That knowledge could be the key to her escape and survival. These thoughts didn't pass before Sango's mind coherently; instead it was a simple desperation that made her eyes dart about the room and then return to her captor's legs and feet, studying them. Her hands made grasping motions instinctually, trying to find a weapon.

The white-socked feet took a step back from her. "Please miss, I have prepared a bath for you. You should get in and I'll wash you before it grows cold. You need to be careful with yourself—don't scare me coming from behind again! You have to worry about more than just yourself you know."

Sango covered her breasts with one arm and shakily began to sit up. She stayed on the floor and for the first time saw her captor clearly. The woman had green eyes and startling straw-colored blond hair. Seeing these features, the voice inside Sango's mind intensified. _Youkai._

"You're…not human?" Sango asked.

The woman ignored her specific question in favor of supplying more information. "My name is Eigo. I am your caretaker. Please, come and take your bath. I won't hurt you."

"I don't know you." Sango frowned, ripping at her memories and looking around the room again, seeking a weapon. She had an image in her head: a long, curved bone, yellow-white like the demon woman Eigo's hair.

"But you will! I have no desire to harm you, only to help you." Eigo stepped forward and Sango, forgetting any need for modesty in her sudden panic, fell backward with her legs splayed and scuttled away from Eigo, frantic to avoid being touched by the demon woman.

Eigo stopped short and sighed. Her face, as she looked down at Sango, creased with real sadness and sympathy—but the voice inside Sango's head didn't trust that interpretation.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this," Eigo said, turning her back on Sango and walking to the corner behind the tub. She knelt, disappearing from Sango's field of view.

In that moment, Sango got to her feet and moved, naked but unafraid, toward the door. Just as her fingers found the handle and started to open it, Eigo spoke up from behind the tub. "I wouldn't go out there if I were you. There are sex-hungry youkai roaming around this place and they like to take the strongest women they can find. Brother told me you're a demon slayer. They like demon slayers _a lot._"

Sango paused, listening to Eigo and at the same time seeing and hearing loud footsteps passing by outside. A male musk hit her and she frowned, nearly gagging on it. The voice in her head debated in circles about which choice was worse: staying with the female demon or facing the males.

Eigo sealed her fate when she said, "Miss, I won't stop you from going; I know I would do the same if I were you, but I'm going to _ask_ you to stay here with me." She lowered her voice into a whisper that was too quiet for Sango's ears—which were ringing, another mystery for Sango to unravel—so Sango turned her head to watch the youkai woman's lips and picked out the last words of the demon woman: "_help you."_

"Help me?" Sango repeated.

"Yes," Eigo replied, smiling. "You'll have more luck with me than you will out in the hall. And it really would be a shameful waste considering your baby."

The last word jolted Sango to the bone. She released the door handle and covered her breasts again with her arms self-consciously. _Baby?_

That one word brought back memories, swarming through her head like a cloud of bees defending their nest. She remembered her belly, swollen out in front of her. She saw babies staring up at her with their tiny, wet, and warm mouths wrapped around her nipples. She felt their weight in her arms, their breathing on her neck, heard their laughter in her ears. _Baby…_

A spicy smell had filled the air and Sango choked on it, fighting to breathe without vomiting. She looked to Eigo and saw the demon woman approaching her slowly with caution. "Let me bathe you, Miss. What's your name?"

Sango felt her limbs growing heavier. It became a burden for her to hold her arms against her breasts, supporting them. She shook her head, fighting dizziness. "My name is…"

"Yes?" Eigo had reached her now and was touching her shoulder, rubbing it as if she were a mother or a sister, comforting a sick family member.

Sango flinched from the touch at first but then relaxed; giving in. "My name is Sango."

"A fine, beautiful name, Sango." Eigo relished the name, repeating it quietly several times, as if committing it to memory. "Come Sango; let me wash all of this dirt off you. I'll make you beautiful."

Eigo led Sango to the tub and guided her into it. The water was warm and Sango closed her eyes, ceasing all struggling against Eigo as the demon woman wet a cloth and began to scrub Sango's shoulders and arms. "Brother was truly right about you, Sango dear! You have such powerful muscles under your skin. You are the strongest human woman I've bathed—except maybe for the girl Brother brought you in with. Did you know her? She finally told me her name too. Akisame, a pretty name too. But I guess since she is part dog she doesn't compare to you really."

The demon woman's rambling made Sango tense again and open her eyes. "Akisame?"

"Yes, that was her name. She's a young girl. Was she a demon slayer too?"

Sango frowned, though the expression took a great deal of effort. While Eigo grabbed out one of her arms and scrubbed at it with her soapy cloth, Sango stared at her other hand, trying to bring out the memories associated with that name: _Akisame. _

"Part dog?" she repeated. The voice in her mind swirled, coming to life and listing out words and facts that were somehow associated with dog demons: _leaders, intelligent: bipedal, energy, and true-forms. Year-round breeding, multiple family clans. Warriors, less pack-oriented than wolf demons, strong instinctual family-loyal. _

"Yes, inuyoukai. It seemed strange to me that she would come in with you. A slayer and a demon girl. Why would a demon girl work with a slayer? Silly really. Brother guessed that perhaps you came from the Western Lands...? Or maybe you didn't know her at all? That brainless Umidori was just making up stories for Brother again."

"She's…" Sango fought to think, clenching and unclenching her single fist.

"So you did know her?" Eigo asked, narrowing her green eyes at Sango and pausing in her scrubbing.

Sango at last shook her head, unable to draw up an image of the girl. She found memories of a man in red with white hair and dog ears, but there was no girl fitting the same description. "No, I don't know her."

"That's better for her then. I'll ask Brother not to tell our patrons that she's a demon slayer too." Eigo's voice wavered for a moment, "It will make life easier for her."

"You're going to help me?" Sango asked, reaching through the water to still Eigo's hands.

The demon woman stopped, staring Sango in the eye with a pained expression. Slowly she gave a tiny nod and whispered; "I will do all I can."

* * *

"Wake up! Wake up!"

Small hands had hold of Kagome's shoulder, shaking her. She opened her eyes and stared up at the owner of those hands. It was a girl, wizened and thin with long, black stringy hair. The girl was dressed in the traditional red and white garb of a priestess.

"Where am I?" Kagome asked, starting to sit up but stopping short and hissing when her neck seized up with pain. She gripped it and winced, breathing hard until the pain had passed. As it did she became aware of a ridge like a scar running over the bumps of her neck vertebrae. When she touched it pain shot through her body and her head.

"You're new here," the girl said, observing Kagome's confusion. "Don't touch it. That just makes it hurt more."

"What is it?" Kagome asked, removing her hands slowly, deliberately from her neck. They shook where she placed them in her lap.

The girl bit on her lips so hard that they turned white. Her eyes bored into Kagome with an emotion that resembled anger—but also despair. "Come on, you're going to be late to worship."

Kagome swung her legs off one side of where she'd woken, a wooden pallet without a blanket. She stopped midway through the motion, staring at her legs. She couldn't recall what she'd been wearing before, but she knew that the red and white priestess clothing had _not_ been it. The clothing was familiar to her, it meant something to her, but Kagome was helpless to say just what that was.

The girl called out to her again, "Come on!"

Kagome hopped off the wood pallet and started after her. In the room that she'd woken in there were four other wood pallets, all of them lining the wall and all of them currently empty. Blankets were laid out over them, some in disarray, others made up neatly. Kagome left that room in a daze, barely noticing the hallways that she passed through and the open doorways every few feet that led to other rooms with similar wooden pallets.

The halls were filled with other women, all of them dressed as priestesses. The passageways were whirlwinds of white and red. Kagome noticed with alarm that most of the girls were pale and sickly.

The girl led Kagome outside, into the sunlight. The air was cool, the breeze fragrant and gentle. Kagome slowed for a moment, smiling as she enjoyed it. A small sound behind her, of feet over grass, made her turn her head sharply and search, looking for something. There were some men dressed as monks. Their robes were a mixture of colors, some red and some blue. Kagome scanned their faces and felt disappointment start up inside her. She was looking for someone, waiting for someone, but who?

The dark-haired, brown-eyed men in their monk's garb passed by her uncaringly. Staring at them from behind, Kagome saw the blue robes flash dark black-purple in her mind's eye. It was memory, presenting itself over the top of her world. She had known a monk once. Perhaps she had always been inside a temple or a shrine. But if that was the case, why had she forgotten this past?

The girl was shouting at her, telling her to hurry. Kagome started walking again, following the girl and noting the sharpness of the girl's spine and collarbone where her bare skin showed over her ceremonial robes. _Why does everyone here look like they don't eat anything and like they're just getting over a bad flu?_

Kagome stared at her own hands while they walked, seeing the health and vitality in her fingers, her tendons, and the plumpness of her wrists. _I don't look like them…_

Passing through beautiful, fragrant gardens, Kagome found herself under a pavilion with a tapered, sweeping roof. Kagome gaped up at it as she ascended some small steps. At least two hundred people, all of them clothed in monk or priestess robes, were gathering under the shade of the pavilion. They self-organized themselves into long rows, male and female and then by color. For the first time, Kagome noticed that the monks came in two colors only: blue and red. The priestesses, though it was not normal, also came in two styles: the classic red and white, and then in dark red only with no visible white tops.

The girl leading Kagome reappeared and yanked on her hand as Kagome were a schoolgirl again, as young as or younger than the girl that was dragging her about. Startled, Kagome allowed it. She followed the girl as they weaved a path through the priestesses. Kagome stared unabashedly into every woman's face. Some of them met her eyes with various expressions of anger, sadness, and pain while others didn't meet her gaze at all. They appeared almost too weak to do so. There was only one distinction between the priestesses in the classic white and red robes and the women that were wearing only dark red as far as Kagome could tell. The women in dark red were emaciated and shrunken. Their eyes, if they met her stare at all, were hollow and nearly lifeless. They were shells of whatever they had been before.

Kagome began to feel nauseous.

The girl sat down finally and made room for Kagome to do the same. They sat still and quiet, nearly unmoving. A few of the women did speak; as did some of the monks on the other side of the massive outdoor pavilion, but it was hushed, as if they were afraid of being caught.

Quietly, Kagome turned to the girl at her side, "So…what's your name?"

"I'm Nyu," the girl answered without looking at her. Nyu's eyes were pointed forward, waiting.

"What is this place?"

"A temple and a shrine," Nyu said.

Kagome twiddled her thumbs in her lap, trying to find something else to ask that would draw out a better answer. "Um—why did you come here?"

"I didn't," Nyu sneered and turned at last to glare at Kagome. "My parents sold me to Master Dani for some rice."

"And Master Dani is training you to become a priestess?" Kagome asked, her voice growing shriller with disbelief.

Nyu tilted her head to one side and narrowed her dull brown eyes with disdain. "You really have no idea, do you?"

"No," Kagome agreed, smiling with genuine amusement, "I can't remember anything."

"What's your name?"

"Kagome Higurashi." The answer fell off her lips so easily, and yet Kagome felt that that was not the right answer. Those two words did not manage to sum up her identity properly. To Nyu the answer worked fine, it gave Kagome a title for Nyu to use in addressing her, but for Kagome the name was empty, meaningless. Who was Kagome Higurashi? How had she come to be at a bizarre shrine-temple where all of the priestesses and monks were dying of starvation?

"You must've blocked it out," Nyu said, frowning. For the first time since she'd woken and found Nyu prodding at her, Kagome saw sympathy and even sadness in the girl's eyes. The expression was brief but it stimulated Kagome's brain, setting it off into a memory of another girl wearing a black bodysuit and pink armor. It was an old memory, distant but still vaguely painful, heavy with empathy for the other young woman.

Kagome pressed onward, pushing the memory aside when she saw that Nyu was losing interest in their stilted conversation. "What about the bump on my neck? You seemed to know something about it…?"

Nyu glared at her and shook her head. "We don't talk about it. If you do it'll get you in trouble with Master Dani."

Frustrated, Kagome sighed and started to ask another question, but at that moment movement at the other side of the pavilion sent a hush through the crowd. A round, oddly bulky man sauntered up the steps on the opposite side of the pavilion. All of the priestesses and monks faced him and, as he ascended the last stair, all of them fell into deep bows, pressing their foreheads to the wooden floor. When Kagome hesitated Nyu elbowed her in the ribs and Kagome moved obediently into the bow with a scowl on her face.

"Sit up, my children," Master Dani shouted at the crowd. They obeyed, some of them with the slowness of infirmity, others with remaining, stubborn strength. Kagome squinted at Master Dani, immediately disliking him. Her skin crawled beneath her robes.

"What a creep," she murmured, looking to Nyu for support only to receive a bitter, foul sneer in response.

"Let us begin," Master Dani exclaimed. He began chanting in a deep, humming voice. He started walking through the aisles of seated monks, looking first through the ones dressed in blue. He moved slowly, stopping occasionally to kneel and touch one of them.

At first Kagome was unimpressed and uninterested in his movements, it was his chanting that disturbed her. It was not done in a language that she could understand. It was gibberish, or at least the same few words repeated over and over again. Her neck began to sting and ache with each steady repetition. Nyu at her side, and all of the other red and white priestesses around Kagome had ducked their heads and squeezed their eyes tightly shut. Their hands were shaking convulsively in their laps.

One of the monks ahead made a weak sound of pain. Kagome looked up, breaking the feigned head bow and prayer that she'd been doing to see that Master Dani had knelt among the monks wearing red robes. He appeared almost to be embracing one of them and it was that man that had cried out. After a second Master Dani stood upright again and began chanting.

Kagome saw the master wipe his mouth with his pale hand and move his lips, licking them as if he had just eaten something juicy and overripe. There was blood on his hands and smeared around his mouth.

Her stomach lurched up into her throat.

"What is going on here?" she asked, beginning to breathe hard. Her neck pulsed with pain when she tried to haul herself up to her feet. She wanted to rise and shout at the master, to run to the aid of the monk that he'd bitten—? Her feet and arms refused to move. Kagome stared down at them in fresh horror and saw that her hands were now shaking exactly as Nyu's and the other priestesses.

_We are all glued here,_ she realized, _but they have accepted it and I haven't. _

Master Dani had knelt among the monks in red again and pulled another of his disciples into his embrace. The monk, barely more than a boy this time, made the small sound of pain just as his companion had, then he was silent. Master Dani rose to his feet yet again and began his trek through the rows with more speed until he reached the miko priestesses in their strange all-red garb.

Kagome watched the master carefully, struggling to understand anything that she could from his behavior. Master Dani perused the red priestesses as if he were shopping for good produce. He stopped while he chanted and examined them, touching the tops of their heads, stroking their hair, and occasionally tipping their heads up by the chin to force them to look at him. He did not stoop down to embrace any of the priestesses dressed in red.

At last Master Dani reached the priestesses in red and white. He slowed his pace and, closer to him now, Kagome saw the lust and hunger in his eyes as he scanned each woman or girl along the line. Somewhere near the front of the lines of red and white priestesses, Master Dani stopped and reached out, touching one of the younger women. His chant had not stopped and Kagome could see the woman that he touched quivering. She thought he would kneel and embrace her, but Master Dani stepped past her. When he had passed by two more women he knelt and embraced the third. She cried out, whimpering.

He was sucking their blood. Kagome made a growling sound in her throat, anger and disgust. Nyu and the other priestesses around her glared with a mixture of fear and confusion. Even Kagome stopped making the sound when she realized how _odd_ it was. Had she been raised by dogs? The desire to shout at him was overwhelming, as was the frustration when her arms and legs shook, resisting her need to get up and flee or attack. _I can stop him! If only I had an arrow…_

Memories raced through her mind: an arrow glowing with blue-purple energy, the woman in a black body suit shouting a war cry while she hefted a massive bone boomerang, a monk in purple robes with a golden staff and—a man with white hair and dog ears. _Two_ men with white hair and dog ears—_no_ a baby, a little boy with those ears! The blue eyes of her son, the golden eyes of her husband and—her daughter! The long black hair, silky and wild as her cursing tongue.

Her fingers curled up into fists. _I know who I am!_

The pain in her neck rose, stabbing and sharp. Kagome closed her eyes and cried out. Tears started to seep out of her eyes, dripping down the bridge of her nose onto the wooden floor of the pavilion.

Something brushed against her head, but Kagome barely felt it through the pain in her neck. Suddenly a hand wrapped around her neck and Kagome cried out, flinching. Her body quivered, trying to move but physically unable to. She felt fingers on her chin, turning her head upward. She stared up at the master. He was bald, but there were wiry whiskers sticking out from around his mouth and ears, they also tickled her chin. His eyes were tiny, his lips were flabby. They curled downward as he stared, examining her. His lips moved in the monotonous chant, but Kagome couldn't hear it through her pain.

He started to kneel. The chanting ceased, his bulbous lips opened and Kagome saw his tiny, pointy teeth arrayed in multiple rows in his mouth, like a shark's teeth.

_No!_

She managed to lift one hand and touch his chest. Her fingers sparked with purple light and Master Dani halted, his beady eyes widening slightly. He released her slowly and stepped backward. A smile curved over his face.

The chanting had not yet resumed. The priestesses around Kagome were shivering and peeking at Master Dani's feet and at Kagome's face. One of them gawked with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide as if she'd seen a mouse.

The chant began once more and the priestesses cringed, waiting for him to choose a different victim. He chose Nyu. Kneeling, Master Dani pulled her close to him, pressing her cheek to his own as the girl whimpered in anticipation. His eyes flicked to Kagome as he opened his mouth and latched onto the quivering girl's neck.

Kagome breathed hard, nearly panting. Something had happened between her and Master Dani, but she didn't know what. It hadn't been the showdown she expected. She had seen and felt the sparks of power at her fingertips and so had Master Dani, but he hadn't reacted as she thought he would. _He's a demon, I should have purified him._

Master Dani pulled free of Nyu and stood upright. His eyes had not left Kagome, the smile still curled over his lips, which were now coated with a thick, sticky rim of blood. He wiped at his mouth slowly, promising without words that she would suffer soon.

Nyu had collapsed into a small ball but she was awake and alert. On her neck there was a small bleeding wound, a few puncture wounds. Otherwise she appeared unharmed, but the bite had affected her in other ways. Nyu's body was limp and her eyes flicked around their sockets as if she were unable to control where she looked completely. Kagome's mind spun, working hard to understand _why_ that might happen, but she came up empty.

Master Dani had reached the end of their rows. His chanting stopped for good and he shouted behind them, "My children! The meeting has ended for today, but these days are blessed ones for us! A sign from heaven has come to me, and it is time that I picked from among you a select few that will serve me above all the rest! Do not fear, those of you that I pick will receive the most blessings and the finest beds in this world and the next. I will select the Chosen ones from among you two days from now. Good day my children, I go to make my rounds to those that are absent from our group this morning."

His footsteps descended down the stairs and diminished, fading over the grass and through the gardens. Kagome's arms and legs stopped quivering, the tenseness left her. She breathed normally and was able to get up at will finally. She looked after Master Dani's bulky, rounded figure crossing over the shrine and temple grounds, heading back to the barracks that housed the priestesses and monks. Kagome scanned the grounds, even the rooftops, hoping for a glimpse of red Fire Rat robes and white hair.

_Inuyasha._

* * *

A/N: I'm wondering how I'm going to get my fish tank out of my apartment…

_Akisame was fighting with the bars, gnashing her teeth and trying to break the door apart. Her knuckles were bleached white with the effort, but she was still listening to Kiremono and when she stopped trying to bend the bars, Akisame shouted, "Fuck you! Come over here and say that to my face!"_

_Kiremono laughed in a high, fluting voice. "Yes, a precious thing indeed. It's a wonder that her mother ever gave her up, as sweet as she is."_


	15. Fever

A/N: My boyfriend/fiance has proven thoroughly selfish lately and although he's deeply sorry, I'm just pissed at him because it's a recurring problem... Kay, with that whining comes this whining. I'm sorry I kinda vanished for (a week or was it two weeks?) a while. I was writing chapters for my third novel. Yippee. But I was able to peel myself away from fan fiction because although I put a lot of work into these things, and I update fairly regularly, I get like fewer than 10 reviews for each. Actually I'm lucky if I make 5 or 7 for _Innocence_. I know I get more hits than that, the quiet lurkers that don't say anything. But come come now! Don't be shy! I'm a review whore, reviews keep me going. I don't know, makes me feel like I'm losing my edge. If you enjoy my work, tell me so! It doesn't have to be long (though I live for those) and it doesn't even have to be glowing and sugary. You can tell me you hate a character and think I'm OOC or something, I will take it as long as it's valid criticism and not too harsh like "You suck!" honestly I've had like two episodes in years of writing fan fiction that were genuine flamers. So...if you read and have a thought, share it with me! Pwease?

Oh, and happy Memorial Day!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters, but my own characters are mine.

Last Chapter: The men have set off to cross Japan from east to west side. Masuyo prayed for Sango's wellbeing. Sango woke up and met Eigo, a demon woman who insisted on giving her a bath and jabbering. She said that she would help Sango out. Kagome woke up with a strange ridge on her neck and in Kikyo's old getup. A girl named Nyu took her to "worship," where the parasitic youkai Master Dani picked out a few victims and sucked out a little blood. He tried to do it to Kagome but she managed to touch him with purifying energy and Master Dani passed her by. He _should_ have been purified by her touch, but was not. Kagome remembered _who_ she was as well; she's the first of the abducted women to do so.

* * *

**Fever**

After Master Dani had left the pavilion, the priestesses around Kasai, all dressed in white and red, got slowly to their feet and dispersed like horses going out to pasture, searching for different spots to graze. Like Kagome, Kasai had woken and followed a few girls to the pavilion for their "worship," only to find that Master Dani was a monster that drank the blood of his "children." She was bound to her spot, unable to move, and when she struggled the same pain afflicted her in her neck.

She had been lucky, though she had no idea why exactly. Master Dani had paused over her just as he had with Kagome early on in his procession but, unlike Kagome, Kasai was unable to free herself from his grasps. He could have drunk her dry if he wanted, but instead he had merely touched her head reverently while she shook in her spot. Then he had departed, moving down the line a few girls to sample one of them instead. That girl lay shivering in a fetal position. A few other priestesses waited around her, their gazes unfocused and bland. Kasai recognized a few of the girls as ones that had walked with her to the pavilion: Kushou and Mirimi.

Lost, with nowhere else to go, Kasai walked to stand just outside the circle of priestesses that hovered over the girl that Master Dani had singled out in their row. Kushou, the first priestess that had talked to Kasai when she'd woken up clueless and in pain, now turned and glared at her. "I don't know why he skipped you," she muttered.

Kasai wrapped her weak arms around her chest, hugging herself and taking a step back from Kushou's abrupt wrath. "I…I don't know either…"

One of the other priestesses, an older woman whose name Kasai didn't know, hushed Kushou. "Don't speak of it." She pointed to Kasai and said, "Get over here and help us carry Shika. You're still strong."

"Why do you stay here?" Kasai asked, shivering though the morning air was warm and the sun was shining. "Why don't you all just walk out of here?" she demanded.

Kushou sneered at her, "Just try it, girl."

A male voice rose up behind Kasai, startling her into turning around so fast that she stumbled. "I'll go with you."

Kasai found herself staring up at a thin, tall young man with brown hair and brown eyes. He was plain but soft-spoken and what little Kasai could see of his forearms past his red robe told her that he was still healthy and strong like she was. He smiled at her and bowed slightly, "I am Kenpo."

As she searched his face, one detail jumped out to Kasai: on his neck there was a scab and a nasty purple-black bruise. He had been bitten before. "My name is Kasai," she stammered and then bluntly asked, "How long have you been here?"

"A few weeks," Kenpo answered, frowning. He gestured toward the priestesses behind Kasai, "None of them will talk about it anymore once they've been here for six months or a year. Master Dani beats it out of them," he lifted his hands and touched the back of his neck, watching Kasai's eyes as he did it to make sure that she saw it, "Using this."

Kasai mimicked his movement, reaching back to her own neck and wincing when she touched the upraised ridge of skin there. "What is it?"

"None of us remember getting it," Kenpo said, lowering his voice. "Everyone here thought this was a real shrine or a temple until Master Dani got them alone for a few minutes. Then they wake up here and never leave unless…" he stopped, cutting himself off, but Kasai read the rest of his unfinished sentence out of his eyes, the desperation and direness of the situation. The priestesses and monks here were Master Dani's food supply, like cattle raised for the slaughter.

"I don't remember coming here either," Kasai scowled, frustrated with her lack of memory. "I—I can't remember anything really…"

"You know your name," Kenpo reminded her, smiling reassuringly. When Kasai looked up at him again she decided that he really was handsome. The thought of reaching out and touching his arm occurred to her and her fingers twitched, but she restrained the impulse, reining it in.

"How did you get here?" Kasai asked, staring at the wooden floor and then looking away when she saw where some of the fallen priestess's blood had dribbled. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath to push aside the abrupt rise of panic inside her. The blood reminded her of something else: beach sand, the rush of ocean waves, a woman screaming in agony, and something in her hands, cold and hard—a sword…

Kenpo was talking, heedless of Kasai's inner distress, "I was born not far away from here, in a little village without any temple of its own. I wanted to be educated and become a monk. I didn't want to break my back planting every spring in a field. My parents heard of this place and so they gave me some money and sent me to look for it." He smiled, a melancholy expression that was caught between sadness and warmth.

When Kasai didn't answer immediately Kenpo leaned forward to be more in her field of vision to recapture her attention. "Are you sure you don't remember how you came here? You look troubled…"

"I…" she shook her head but kept her eyes lowered away from him. "I can't remember much, but I think—I think I was a warrior." The word _warrior_ was so bizarre to say, to think that she had been something so masculine. Was she recalling a dream instead? Who was she? The way that the blood had disturbed her, and the memories of the woman screaming on the beach—was she really a warrior?

"A warrior?" Kenpo asked. "That's unusual but—" he switched topics suddenly, saying, "Well your nose is pretty bruised."

Startled by his observation, Kasai opened her eyes and touched her nose. "What?"

"Your nose is bruised…it looks like someone hit you."

Kushou bumped into Kasai suddenly, snarling at her. "You think you can just walk out of here huh? Try it, both of you. If you think worship was scary then just go ahead and walk out of here!" She pointed wildly toward the rich, green gardens beyond the pavilion and beyond them to the gates that enclosed the shrine and temple grounds. "Master Dani _knows_ what everyone is doing _all the time._ I've seen people leave after their first worship and they come back nearly dead because he tracked them down and brought them back. Go ahead and try to run—he'll only finish you off quicker that way!"

The small, timid priestess that Kasai had been introduced to as Mirimi called out Kushou's name. She and the older priestess were trying to help up the girl that Master Dani had bitten named Shika. Shika was able to stand upright but she was pale and slumped between the other two priestesses. Her face was twisted with pain.

Kushou threw one last glare at Kasai and then hurried to help with Shika.

Alone beside Kenpo, Kasai stared at Shika's creased, cracked face, the mask of pain and whispered, "What did he do to her?"

Kenpo drew in a short, choppy breath. "It hurts afterwards. All over your body."

It was clear from the pinched tone of his voice that Kenpo was telling her that after having experienced it. Kasai tried to steel herself against the desire to dissolve into a fit of shivering. "We have to get out of here—everyone, all of us."

"Yes, before we lose hope too."

* * *

After her bath, and after the wretched kitsune woman Kiremono had picked out a gauzy, heavy brocade kimono for her, Akisame found herself hauled through the twisting, labyrinthine hallways of her bizarre, foreign prison. Kiremono carried her in her arms as if Akisame were her child, a child that had fallen asleep at the dinner table and needed to be carried in to be tucked into bed. Akisame made a face into her captor's silken clothes and clutched at her, but her fists were weak. Her hands didn't have enough strength to force her claws through Kiremono's clothes, let alone her skin sheltered beneath.

Finally they reached their destination. Akisame saw men lounging about the wide, rectangular room. Her head spun when Kiremono set her onto her feet and helped her to climb some small steps to a raised platform that was surrounded by solid wooden bars. It was a cage for women, like a zoo for men to visit to examine their favorite type of animal.

Akisame made a small noise and tried to fight Kiremono. Her lips felt numbed but through them she managed to say a few curses, "Fuck you. Leh-me go."

"I'm sorry darling," Kiremono purred and, leaning at an awkward angle she produced a key and worked expertly with one hand to unlock the padlock on the wooden bars. The door slid open, rattling heavily on its grooves. Kiremono pushed Akisame forward with one hand, letting gravity take the girl to the floor of the platform. "Good luck, child."

Akisame bared her teeth, but the fierceness of her expression was lost because her face was pressed against the floor. She grunted, trying to lift her head. Her thoughts were sharp, raging with plans for violence, but her body was heavy and slow. Before her bath, while Akisame had slept, the kitsune women, Eigo and Kiremono, had burned some sort of drugging incense. While they scrubbed her in the bath both kitsune women wore white gauze masks to keep themselves from inhaling too much of the incense, but to Akisame they actually brought out the thin, burning sticks and wafted them beneath her nose to keep her tranquilized.

Kiremono's voice came through the room, echoing. "Gentlemen, I welcome you. I have just brought out our latest offering to you. She is a young girl, just the way you like. She is part _inuyoukai._"

Murmurs of surprise riffled through the crowd. Akisame felt a moment of surprise as well. She hadn't been able to consider her identity much since waking. Her existence had been more about blind anger and carnage in an attempt to escape. That course of action hadn't changed much, but now, under the tranquilizer, she was forced to listen to Kiremono and recall the red-haired man that she'd first seen upon waking. He had called her part _inuyoukai_ too. She had trouble remembering what that meant, other than that she was not human—a fact she'd already reached on her own.

She pushed herself up from the floor with one hand and waited without moving, hoping that the world would steady itself. It did and Akisame blinked, staring out at the crowd. Braziers burned around the edges of her massive caged platform, making the inside of the cage bright and the outside dull and dark. Akisame's eyes watered as she tried to see past it. Her eyes adjusted gradually and soon she could see Kiremono wandering among dark male shadows. She could also see men gathering around the cage. Through the thin aroma of the braziers, Akisame could also smell the testosterone, the sharpness of male musk.

"I don't believe you, Kiremono! She looked human to me and I can't smell her from out here." A male voice challenged Kiremono, laughing raucously.

"Suit yourself! I'll unlock the padlock and you can take a closer look and tell all the other gentlemen what a fine bitch she is."

Akisame heard and felt their footsteps on the little stairs by the padlocked door. She hauled herself into a more stable sitting position and tried to see but her long black hair obscured her view. Before she could push the wayward locks of hair aside, a shadow fell over her. A hand landed roughly over her head and grabbed her by bunching strands of her hair together. When he pulled and started to lift her off the floor, Akisame screamed.

"The bitch has a fine set of lungs!" The man laughed. Akisame caught his scent and recognized it as a kitsune. "But she's just another—"

Akisame's scream deepened and she kicked and clawed, tossing all dignity and caution out the door. Her claws found his arm and left deep gouging slashes. Blood spattered over the already crimson-colored padding on the floor of the platform-cage. The man screeched with shock and sudden pain, releasing her to grip his bleeding forearm. But before he could back away from her, Akisame's feet had kicked his knees out from beneath him. He tumbled forward, sprawling on all fours.

Stumbling with drug-induced clumsiness, Akisame rushed for the open padlocked door. Kiremono was there, grinning coldly. As Akisame barreled forward, shrieking with every scrap of oxygen she could get, Kiremono calmly slid the barred door shut and inserted the key, locking it, and stepped back. Akisame's clawed hands reached after her a second too late, but her frustration kept her growling and snarling, scratching and slashing at the empty air where Kiremono's body had been moments before.

Some of the men began laughing, impressed with the display. One of them shouted out, demanding, "Kiremono—is she available now?"

"I'm afraid not. Ratsuwan-sama wants to break her in."

"Why bring the bitch out here then? Just to tease us?"

"It is normal for us to give our ladies some time to settle into their place here. We don't want to push her too hard too fast." Kiremono turned and smiled at the cage, a smug, taunting gleam burned in her green eyes. "It would be a crime to overtax her. Isn't she precious, gentlemen?"

Akisame was fighting with the bars, gnashing her teeth and trying to break the door apart. Her knuckles were bleached white with the effort, but she was still listening to Kiremono and when she stopped trying to bend the bars, Akisame shouted, "Fuck you! Come over here and say that to my face!"

Kiremono laughed in a high, fluting voice. "Yes, a precious thing indeed. It's a wonder that her mother ever gave her up, as sweet as she is."

Alarmed, Akisame moved away from the bars, her eyes roving around the crowd, her face flushing with heat. It was improper for a woman—let alone an unmarried girl—to speak with such language. How did she not only know the words but speak them so naturally?

For the first time, as she panted and caught her breath, Akisame saw that inside the platform cage there were other women with her. The other women were huddled in one corner, pressed into it and cowering with fear. They stared at her, all of them with identical, stunned expressions. They were like a herd of sheep, watching the wolf plot its plan of attack.

_Ridiculous._ Akisame glanced down at her kimono and scowled with disgust. There was blood on it from the man—a kitsune youkai—that had come up doubting her strength. Now he was also cowering against the bars on an opposite side from the other women. He held his bleeding arm and gritted his teeth. His eyes were squeezed shut with his pain. The men outside were shouting his name and taunting him.

"Never doubt Lady Kiremono!"

"If she says the bitch is inuyoukai, she's inuyoukai!"

Their shadows moved beyond the glare of the braziers and Akisame moved her head and her eyes, following them. The men muttered about her and occasionally gave catcalls, trying to get her to lunge after them or shout. Akisame ignored them, trying to think. Her body had ceased feeling heavy, her heart pounded, fueled by adrenaline. She pulled her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around them, shivering.

_How do I escape…?_

Another movement beyond the bars made Akisame look up, narrowing her golden eyes. She recognized Kiremono by scent and sneered. Kiremono slipped one slender, long-fingered hand through the bars and tossed something into the nearest brazier with a quick, calculated motion. Smoke curled up from it, blue-white. Even before she'd smelled it, Akisame knew what the smoke was. She found what she thought was Kiremono's silhouette and muttered a curse at it, "You bitch…"

The tranquilizing scent worked quickly. Though Akisame tried to move away from it, closer to the cowering women on the other side of the platform cage, she eventually accepted her fate when the women screeched and clawed at the bars, trying to escape her. Irritated at their reaction, and her new place as an outcast among _prostitutes,_ Akisame stayed where she was and tried to breathe shallowly. It didn't work well and within a few minutes of Kiremono's burning of the herbals leaves, Akisame found her body sagging against her will to the floor.

The padding on the floor was red, a jolting color. Akisame focused on it, moving her hands over it, feeling the spots that had been unevenly worn by sitting women and walking men. She watched the door open later, as she'd known it would, through the splayed fingers of one hand. The other kitsune woman, Eigo stepped into the light and gently walked another woman, another prisoner, into the platform cage.

While Eigo moved further into the caged area and helped the bleeding kitsune man that Akisame had attacked earlier off the platform, Akisame studied the latest arrival. She had long brown hair that was tied up on her head decoratively, like a porcelain doll or some palace courtier. But that hairstyle didn't suit her, it was too fragile. This new prisoner was a woman of power and strength, a warrior. Akisame smiled against the red padding, feeling hope for the first time since Kiremono and Eigo had given her the bath that stripped her of her dignity.

This woman Akisame recognized. She was wearing a dirty, scuffed bodysuit with pink armor. If Akisame thought hard enough she could find the woman's name…

* * *

The place where their paths diverged came sooner than Inuyasha had expected. They had only been traveling for a few days. The tallest mountains were still ahead but they were making good time.

The two groups split apart. Kohimu, Tisoki, and Masuyo went toward the demon slayer's village to tell Miroku of what had happened and to join up with him for the rest of their journey. Inuyasha, Shippo, and Koinu walked on without altering their course to the west coast.

The reduction in the size of their group increased their speed. Shippo, having recovered his hearing completely, became invaluable; leaping ahead even faster than Inuyasha could to scout the path that would provide them the fastest route through the mountains. Koinu became the slowest member with the remaining water caught in his lungs. During the afternoons he began sweating, the droplets beading noticeably on his brow, collecting and rolling down his temples or the bridge of his nose. He was battling internally and externally, trying to keep up with his father and Shippo while also fighting an infection. His cough returned but Inuyasha showed no signs of slowing down and Koinu never complained.

Each night, an hour or so after dark had settled, the three travelers made a fire and searched for food. Inuyasha and Shippo left Koinu by silent, unspoken agreement to watch the camp. Koinu didn't really _watch_ the campsite or guard their things, or even tend the fire. He sat and shivered, his eyes closed, his ears drooped. When Inuyasha and Shippo returned they put pieces of meat over the fire, smoking and cooking them, and then coaxed Koinu into eating them.

In the heights of the mountains, where the climate changed slightly, cooling with elevation, Koinu's daily fevers peaked to the point of delirium and delusion. They climbed the steep slopes, following a thin path through tall, dark pine forests. Koinu fell behind, breathing hard, stooped over and sometimes resorting to using his hands to keep himself from falling over while they walked.

Normally Shippo scouted ahead of the troupe, but with Koinu's increasing illness he lingered between Inuyasha and Koinu, shouting encouragement that Koinu didn't seem to hear as anything except _noise._ His ears twitched in acknowledgement when he heard his name, and he might've mumbled answers, but they were unintelligible, unclear.

In the hottest part of the afternoon, Koinu stopped, doubling over and sinking to his knees. His white hair fell thick around his face, his bangs were plastered to his forehead, and his tongue lolled out, a bright, hot red. Shippo ran back to him at a hopping lope and landed in front of him.

"Koinu! You can do it! Are your lungs okay?" The kit didn't bother trying to hide the way he leaned forward, sniffing at Koinu, checking his scent.

"I need Mom," Koinu whimpered in a raspy, weak voice. "Momma."

Shippo's brow furrowed with worry. "We're going to get her. I miss her too."

"Man in white." Koinu's clawed fingers curled into fists in the dirt, pushing little rocks and bits of plant debris out of the way. "Rattling pills. The Bone Eater's well…"

"Koinu?" Shippo asked, reaching out to touch his ailing companion's shoulder, but the moment his hand landed on Koinu's shoulder the pup lashed out, pushing him away and screeching incoherently.

Shippo took a step back, his green eyes wide and frightened, shining from within.

Inuyasha was at his side without a sound, standing proud and upright, watching as Koinu fell to the dust and started to cough. There was a thick, wet sound in his lungs. "Damn."

"Inuyasha, what do we do?" Shippo asked, quivering.

"He was asking for Kagome so she could take him to see a _doc-tor._ A healer from Kagome's era. They give out the _pi-ills._" Inuyasha's ears laid flat and he turned to glance at the towering, dark pines around them, the rocky mountainsides. "It's that damned fever. If we could find something to give him, he'll be fine."

Shippo shook his head, helpless. "I don't know anything about fevers! Has Koinu ever had one before? What did Kagome give him then?"

Fevers were a rare thing among youkai. Infection could happen it was true, it could even kill the unlucky victim, but fevers didn't accompany infection in most types of youkai. The immune system worked differently in them, dispensing with fevers altogether. Koinu, however, was mostly human and so his body worked with both types of immune system defense strategies. For Inuyasha, who had never suffered a serious fever unless it was induced by poisoning, Koinu's delirium was foreign and disturbing.

"Shippo, go search through the woods for any herbs that you remember smelling before and bring them to me."

"But I don't know what any of them do," Shippo protested, his eyes widening and his eyebrows lifting high into his forehead.

"I don't care, just do it! I'll decide what to use! Go!" Inuyasha chased Shippo off into the forest growling the entire time. He returned to where Koinu was and knelt next to his son, calling his name gruffly.

Koinu was panting. His lungs had an ominous rattle with each breath. He raised his head and peered at his father through lidded, glazed blue eyes. "Fa…"

"We're going to rest for a while," Inuyasha told him in a stern, deep tone that he hoped sounded commanding but at the same time gentle. He reached out for Koinu's dust-covered hands. "Come on now…"

"No!" Koinu reared away from him like a spooked mare, stumbling back up onto his feet only to fall backward off the trail and into the long grass. He coughed, spluttering on the dust and pollen. "Don't touch me Kasai!"

Inuyasha frowned, "Snap out of it, Son."

"I didn't mean to hit you!" Koinu howled, his ears quivering atop his head. He wiped at his forehead and then stared unseeingly at the wetness that his perspiration left on his fingertips.

"Koinu," Inuyasha growled, advancing on his son in a crouching position, as if ready to fight the sickened boy or to tackle him. "I want you to hop onto my back. It's okay; I'll just carry you for a while until that runt gets back with something for your fever…"

When Inuyasha was within a foot of Koinu the boy flinched, trying to move away from him again. "Don't touch my ears!"

"That's the last fuckin' thing I want to do," Inuyasha snapped. "I just want to carry you for a while, Koinu. It's me, it's _your father._"

Koinu looked at him, trying to focus, but the effort appeared to be too great. He let his shoulders slump and his head fall forward, as if he were nodding off for a nap. Inuyasha interpreted the movement as exactly that and stepped forward, grabbing his son's hands before Koinu could fight him. The pup squirmed but when his nostrils flared and he took in his father's familiar, comforting scent, he relaxed into Inuyasha's hold, giving in.

For a time Inuyasha sat under the shade of the pines with his arms wrapped around his quaking son. He kept his eyes closed and breathed deeply, pressing Koinu close to his body and listening as his son breathed. True to his word, he kept his chin between Koinu's drooped white ears and didn't touch or even breathe on the sensitive appendages.

"Father," Koinu said, speaking softly, almost inaudibly. "I'm sorry…"

"Feh—stop wasting your breath. Nothing to be sorry about," Inuyasha replied, instantaneously. He kept one arm around his son's chest and moved the other through his sweaty, drenched hair. "You're going to be fine."

Koinu nodded against him and whispered, "But the others. Mom and Aki, Kasai and Aunt Sango…"

Inuyasha made a face, clenching his jaw in frustration, but when he spoke he had conquered this reaction in favor of comforting Koinu. "We'll find them and they're all going to be _fine._"

* * *

Just outside the gates of his temple grounds, and over the long stair that led down the mountainside to it, Master Dani stood at the edge of the cliff, facing the sea. The wind blew in, chilly and fierce and stinking like salt.

Seagulls cruised up and down the beach, squawking to one another, making a fuss. They were incredible acrobats and remarkable opportunists. They ate anything they could swallow, anything that felt edible once they picked it up inside their orange beaks. Their long, narrow wings were perfect for surfing the rising air currents, conserving energy by sailing on the invisible waves of the wind.

Master Dani lifted his arms when one of the seagulls flew up and over the cliff, squawking. The beach and cliff were frequented by many seagulls, but they were also haunted by seabird youkai, many of them were agents for the very gull, Umidori that had served Hakugei to punish the four women that had conspired to kill his bastard daughter Iruka.

One of these servants flapped his massive wings and landed some twenty feet away from Master Dani, a safe, respectable distance. It turned its head, tilting it, and stared at Master Dani silently, waiting.

"I have a task for you, friend," Master Dani called out, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice.

The gull unfolded its wings and flapped them. "What? What?"

"There is a woman that your companion Umidori provided to me recently. I cannot use her."

"No? No? Sorry, sorry!" the seabird replied, shrieking and extending its neck in a bobbing motion.

"I need you to accompany me and take her far away from here. She is a threat to me. Will you do this for me?"

The bird paused and began to walk on its webbed feet. Its feather fluttered, ruffling, and then he answered, "Yes!"

"Good, I thank you." Master Dani bowed, "Please, come with me."

* * *

A/N: I bought some new music: Nightwish is the group, "Nemo," is the song. I love the lyrics. Yay!

"_Inuyasha is my husband," Kagome explained. _

_The same priestess that had spoken before did so again, her face was warped into an ugly snarl. "Inuyasha the dragon slayer? Inuyasha the demon exterminator? Inuyasha the priestess killer? If he is your husband than you're married to a myth. Inuyasha doesn't exist."_


	16. First Kiss

A/N: Sorry this one turned out a little long-ish. Umm question: I've had at least two people tell me they didn't like Kasai, but one person said she loved her. Anyone care to share their opinion? And btw THANK YOU ALL for reviewing last chapter as you did. It was a big response and I was smiling all day :-)

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last Chapter: Kasai was at "worship" with Master Dani too, and she was also lucky and skipped over. She met several priestesses, all of them embittered. She also met a monk named Kenpo. Akisame was tranquilized by a special incense smoke and showcased by Kiremono to a crowd of waiting kitsune men. She fought as much as she could, drawing even more blood. Sango was added to the cage too, but Akisame was too drugged at the time to speak with her, though she saw Sango and almost remembered her name. Inuyasha and Sango's sons parted ways. Shippo, Koinu, and IY continued on but Koinu has pneumonia from his dip in the ocean when he and Kasai faced Iruka. He was delirious, IY tried to comfort him while Shippo ran off to find herbs to try and break his fever. Master Dani called another seagull youkai and asked for its help with a woman that was a "threat" to him.

* * *

**First Kiss**

Throughout the day, after having endured her first and second sessions of Master Dani's version of "worship," Kagome stayed away from the other monks and priestesses, watching them. During the day, except for the fact that most of them were weak, pale, and very thin, she wouldn't have thought that the shrine and temple were that different from a normal, real shrine or temple. The monks wrote sutras and chanted at the passage of the hours. The priestesses tended the gardens and cleaned the barracks and all of the floors and statues. It was dreary, it was mundane. Several times a day they entered the shrine and left incense burning or small offerings of rice cakes or tiny bits of fruit or fish.

Meals occurred regularly. It was a weak broth of rice and chicken for lunch. Between lunch and supper there were two snacks served for those that entered the shrine or the temple at that time. Those snacks were a pickled plum first and then, later in the evening, dried seaweed. The portions were small but it was as much or more food than was provided at temples and shrines elsewhere.

That meant that the men and women of this place were losing their nutrients and their health in other ways. Kagome might've assumed that it was the blood loss, but that didn't appear to explain it fully. Coming from the modern era, Kagome understood that blood was vital, but losing a little of it was acceptable. The shrine and temple housed at least three hundred monks and priestesses. The number should've been enough to sustain Master Dani if he only drank a little from four people every morning. It could become a positive, although dark relationship if it was managed properly. The monks and priestesses could stay at the temple and shrine getting the food and housing they needed and didn't have coming from poor, rural villages, and they could enrich their lives with worship.

But looking around at the people, Kagome could come to only one conclusion: they were dying. There was something else that Master Dani did that was killing his "children."

The monks and priestesses were separated by colors into two groups each. Monks in red were healthy, newer arrivals as best as Kagome could tell. Priestesses in the classic red and white—such as herself—also fit into this category. They were stronger and plumper and continued to have some vitality. Monks in dark blue were closer to death. Priestesses that wore a nontraditional garb that was all red, dark red like Inuyasha's Fire Rat robes, were also close to death, following their male brethren.

During his "worship," Master Dani had only bitten the healthier monks and priestesses. Although the weaker monks and priestesses had been present at the morning assembly, Master Dani had passed them by. Why? Was he preserving them or was there another purpose behind it?

Most of the monks and priestesses at the temple and shrine were young men and women, some of them were still just children. They were the easily forgotten in the world. The unwanted little girl or boy born to an already oversized, poverty-stricken family. If the child weren't sold from birth or left outside to freeze to death, than they were lucky. There were very few women or men that were as old as Kagome. She was in a sea of youth. It was like being the only teacher in a high school or a middle school, except that she had no authority over them. In fact, she had _less_ authority because she was the newcomer.

And they mistrusted her. Master Dani had reacted to her in a way that they'd never seen before and that frightened them and made them jealous all at the same time because Kagome had _not_ been bitten while others like Nyu had and were each morning.

At the midday meal on her second day, Kagome finally saw Kasai. The sight of someone she knew, so unexpected and sudden, made her stare. The rest of the world faded away from her.

She was sitting with the weak Nyu and a few other priestesses, all of them slurping hungrily at their chicken and rice broths. Kagome stopped with her bowl halfway between her mouth and the low table. Without a word of explanation she set the bowl down and left her companions behind. Nyu and the others craned their necks, watching confusedly as Kagome breezed past them, zigzagging across the room to kneel at a different table.

When she sat down at Kasai's side the girl stared at her with a startled look in her dark, violet eyes. "Hello…?"

Kagome's stomach clenched up when she realized that Kasai didn't recognize her. She felt the angry glares of the other priestesses locked onto her, waiting with impatience and irritation. "Kasai," Kagome started, trying to jolt the girl's memory by using her name, "It's me, Kagome."

Kasai blinked at her. "You know my name?"

"Of course I do," Kagome sighed, beginning to lose hope already. "I've known you since you were a baby."

Kasai's eyes widened. "You knew me? Who—" she stopped and stammered into a different question, "How did we get here?"

"I can't remember that very well yet," Kagome admitted, shaking her head. "But I know Inuyasha will be coming after us—and your mother and your father too. And your brothers…" she let her voice drift off into silence when she saw the way that the entire table had turned their eyes to her, wide and disbelieving.

"Inuyasha?" the nearest priestess repeated the name, snorting at the absurdity of the idea. "What are you talking about?"

Kagome searched over the faces of the priestesses and sighed with fatigue. Doubtless they had heard the name spoken before. Inuyasha's name had proliferated into uncountable legends. Some of them were close, others were so far off the mark that Kagome laughed whenever she heard them and didn't bother correcting the absurdity. It was going to be impossible to convince the girls that _she_ was married to the _real_ Inuyasha.

Kasai surprised her when she asked, "Who is Inuyasha?"

When Kagome scrutinized Kasai's face, searching for some hint that the question was a _joke_, she was sourly disappointed. There was a crease in Kasai's forehead, a sign that she was thinking very hard and listening for Kagome's answer as if it _meant_ a lot to her, but the question was not a joke. _Kasai really has no memory of me or of Inuyasha. Does she remember Koinu or Akisame?_

"Inuyasha is my husband," Kagome explained.

The same priestess that had spoken before did so again, her face was warped into an ugly snarl. "Inuyasha the dragon slayer? Inuyasha the demon exterminator? Inuyasha the priestess killer? If _he _is your husband than you're married to a myth. Inuyasha doesn't exist."

Kagome barely spared the other priestess even a look; she was focused on Kasai, on convincing Sango's daughter of the truth. Kasai's brow furrowed, her lips compressed. "I can't remember that legend, but the name—it's familiar to me."

"You wouldn't have paid attention to the myth because you _knew_ Inuyasha," Kagome told her with a growing insistence, a desperation. She reached over the small distance between herself and Kasai and grabbed the young woman's hand. "I knew your mother and your father before you were born. Before your brothers were born. I used to babysit you and change your diapers. You played with my son Koinu…"

The other priestess snorted, laughing bitterly. "You've lost your mind lady! _Koinu?_ What a perfect name for the son of _Inuyasha."_

In spite of the other girl's derisive dismissal of Kagome's story, Kasai was enthralled, peering back into Kagome's warm brown eyes with her own violent ones, digging and sifting through the images inside her skull. Did they fit with what Kagome was saying? Was she really connected to this bizarre woman? She flicked her gaze to Kagome's neck and saw that there were no bruises, no markings. Kagome had not been bitten; she was indeed a newcomer to the shrine and temple of Master Dani.

Kasai closed her hand tightly over Kagome's own and pulled on her, as if trying to draw her closer. "If all that's true—_who am I?_ Tell me about me."

Kagome paused for a moment, sensing that she was undergoing some test or trial. It would be a ridiculous one to fail considering that she had studied for it for most of her adult life. What could she tell Kasai about herself?

"You're Sango and Miroku's only daughter. You have five brothers. You saved my son from a ningyo—"

"With a sword?" Kasai interrupted, her eyes widening and glazing over as she focused inward, recalling the feeling of the cool steel, the light weight, and the slight pressure on her wrists and forearms—which had been sore, twisted—when the blade met up with flesh. And then the wails and screams entered her ears, screeching and echoing.

Kagome shook her head, "I'm not sure. I think you had a sword."

"I killed a woman with a sword…" she stared past Kagome's shoulder at the distant wall and the other priestesses slurping on their soup, but she didn't see any of them. Blood droplets careened through the darkness, onto white sand, just like the blood left by Master Dani on the pavilion floor. A severed arm twitched on that same sand.

There were other memories, fighting to be viewed and recalled. The gagging, choking sounds of a boy, clutched in one arm by a monster with black, beady eyes and the naked body of a woman. The weight of a kitsune's body impaled on her sword when it leaped to tear out her throat. Blood and black slime on her face, her arms, and her clothes, burning and stinging her skin. Blood frothing out of the same kitsune's mouth, and then its head was rolling over the floor, the blood spurting out of its lifeless body. Faces surrounded her though none of them came with names; she recognized her brothers, her mother and her father. The hard face of her eldest brother flew up before her, his brown eyes were those of their mother, but his black hair was like hers, like their father's. She recalled staring into a pond, ducking close to the surface, examining her face. _I look like my father._

"Kasai?" Kagome asked.

Kasai swallowed and blinked, turning her attention at last back to Kagome. "I remember my family…" She released Kagome's hand and covered her face as if she were ashamed. "I have to get out of here!"

Kagome extended her arms out and enveloped Kasai instantly into a hug. She stroked the girl's back and shushed her just as she would've done to Akisame if her daughter had allowed such gestures of comfort at any rate. Kasai accepted the embrace and returned it, pressing her forehead to Kagome's chest, beneath her chin. _How could I forget my family?_ Kasai squeezed her eyes shut with shame.

And then, suddenly, the world was tipped upside down again.

Kagome cried out in pain and let go of Kasai, reaching for her neck. Her body was stiff with pain, her muscles quivering.

"Kagome?" Kasai yelled and tried to touch the other woman but Kagome only flinched and continued shivering with pain. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Kushou was smiling at Kasai, a dark and frightening expression on the other girl's thin, gray face. "Your friend is about to be punished. Master Dani didn't like what she was doing."

Kasai's mouth opened and closed on the air, working it helplessly as she tore through her mind to come up with answers and something to relieve Kagome's pain. Kagome was the only ally she had in a sea of bitter priestesses—aside from the single monk Kenpo. She turned from Kushou and shuffled over the wooden floor to pull Kagome's hair away from the back of her neck. There was a raised scar there, pinkish-white. That scar was the source of all of the priestesses' pain, and it seemed to be what kept them seated during the "worship" assemblies. It made them into slaves.

Seeing the scar made Kasai's legs shoot with pain and weakness. She ignored it and with trembling fingers, Kasai put her nails to the ridge of scar tissue, trying to pry it open.

Kagome screamed and pulled away from her. Tears slipped out of her eyes. Her mouth stayed wide open, cavernous and gaping as she breathed.

"Please, we have to get out of here!" Kasai begged, beginning to blink on her own tears as well. Kagome's pain had not yet stopped. She had moved away from Kasai in a blind panic, bumbling into the table. Soup had spilled everywhere. The priestesses had scattered and stood at a distance, staring with various emotions ranging from disgust and anger, to sympathy and sadness.

Kasai looked to the other priestesses and called to them, "You have to take the things out of your necks! He must be using them to—"

Kushou lunged forward and slapped Kasai in the face, silencing her. Kasai covered the abused cheek with her hand and stared up at Kushou, biting her lips and trying to stop her chin from quivering. _If I had a sword,_ she thought, and then just as quickly she stifled the thought, hating herself for it. _She isn't the enemy…_

"You think we don't know?" Kushou hissed, glaring. "Trying to get it out of your friend," she spat. "You coward. Try it on yourself first."

A murmur went up through the shrine. The priestesses fell to their knees at once wherever they were sitting or standing, averting their eyes. Kushou dropped like a stone to her own knees and shivered there, her hands curled into tight little balls of fury.

Pain tingled and twisted through Kasai's skull when she resisted the desire to conform with the other priestesses. Before it overwhelmed her, taking control, Kasai was able to twist her head around and peer over her shoulder. Master Dani was ascending the steps. She saw his round, bulky form, and his ugly fleshy bald head against the paper screen door. As he grasped it and slid it open, Kasai felt her knees give way at last. She dropped heavily with a grunt and bit the inside of her cheek. She tasted blood.

Kagome had curled into a ball, shaking with her agony in silence now. The tears still oozed out of her eyes without stopping though it seemed that it was an involuntary action brought on by her pain. Kasai mouthed Kagome's name helplessly when she felt Master Dani's robes brush against her shoulder. He had paused beside her; Kasai could almost feel his gaze boring into her from above.

"A disobedient child must be punished," Master Dani intoned.

The priestesses murmured in agreement, though their voices sounded weak and whiny, choked with their own fear, pain, and illness.

Master Dani had not yet moved to where Kagome lied, he continued to stand over Kasai. Kasai whimpered when she felt his hand on her hair, touching her as if she were his daughter or his lover. During their assemblies he had always paused over her as well, paying special attention to her, but not biting her. "Fire," he whispered above her in a voice like dry bones clattering together in an old coffin, "My fire."

It was the meaning of Kasai's name, a fire, a blaze, heat and strength, all-consuming.

Kasai's hands curled into fists. She could not move. _Leave me alone!_

As if he had heard her wish, Master Dani sidestepped her and moved to hover over where Kagome had drifted out of consciousness. He nudged her with one bare foot; the sharp, clawed toenails were yellow and chipped. Kasai watched him and felt her stomach tighten, as if preparing to vomit. Master Dani knelt. His robes were so wide that Kasai couldn't see past them. When he rose to his feet again, Kagome was gone, presumably carried in his arms.

Master Dani turned toward the door. "Good day my daughters. I shall see you in the morning and pick my Chosen from among you."

He shuffled out, disappearing into the open courtyard beyond. The pain stemming from Kasai's neck vanished at last. Breathing hard, she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled immediately after Master Dani. She could not quite remember Kagome clearly, but she knew that Kagome was telling the truth. She had told Kasai who she was, who her family was, and Kasai had found many of the memories to prove it.

Outside there was a small tree, neatly pruned and trimmed. It had a fine shape, rounded like a teardrop or like the lit wick of a candle. Kasai cared nothing for its beauty as she lurched down the shrine's stairs. She was barefoot, the rocky path bit into her soles. Master Dani was walking at a slow, even pace several yards away, taking his time. Kasai grabbed one of the thicker, lower branches of the tree and pulled on it, twisting it and leveraging it up and down in a seesaw motion.

The branch refused to snap off the way she wanted it to. Master Dani was drawing further and further away. Kasai began to sob, her shoulders shaking with her grief even while she worked the branch, praying that it would break. She was not a priestess—she was the daughter of a monk and a demon slayer. She would not allow Master Dani to control her lightly, and she wouldn't let him walk off with the only connection she had to her family. The priestess regalia was not what she wore. She was a demon slayer and Master Dani was just another kind of demon…

The branch snapped off, clunking to the ground when Kasai let go of it in surprise. She stooped and grabbed it up, hefting it into the air, testing its weight even as she began to run. _I'll show you fire, Master._

Shouting, Kasai closed in on him. Master Dani didn't appear to have noticed her approach; he made no obvious motion to pick up his pace.

A stabbing pain started in Kasai's neck and she tripped, falling forward. Her momentum made her body bounce and slide through the dirt, the moss, and the grass. Her body tensed and convulsed with the pain. It filled her mind, erasing all else. When it passed, a second or an eternity later, Kasai tasted blood, dirt, and grass in her mouth. When she lifted her head, shaking with weakness, Master Dani and Kagome had vanished.

_I failed._

* * *

At the edge of his lands, Master Dani knelt and lowered Kagome's limp body to the ground. A seagull hopped nervously about on the grass several feet away, watching and waiting for Master Dani to give him the all-clear.

Master Dani took Kagome's shoulder and rolled her onto her side with one hand. With the other he pushed her long black hair away from the back of her neck. He moved his fat, blunt fingers over the scar tissue and closed his eyes. Black light appeared at his fingertips. The flesh on Kagome's neck opened along the ridge of her spine. Blood trickled, dribbling and oozing in little red rivulets.

Master Dani poked his fingers into the open wound. His beady eyes had widened slightly, his nostrils flared with the closeness of Kagome's blood. How delicious it would be to consume her, to suckle on the wound until she was empty and dry, a dead husk.

He removed his fingers from the wound a second later. Clasped between his bloodied fingers was a small, pale worm. It wriggled and tiny, wiry tentacles shot out from its body, waving through the air, searching. Master Dani eyed the worm for a moment and then he plopped it into his mouth and swallowed without chewing.

The seagull squawked, a negative sound this time though it was unlikely that Master Dani or anyone else would interpret it that way. The bird would've happily eaten the worm—but Master Dani wouldn't have approved. The parasites were parts of himself, shed from him like skin cells or fingernail clippings. By eating them he recycled the nutrients, giving himself more strength. With his upcoming spawning Master Dani needed every last calorie he could get.

He considered draining the woman, but her aura continued to repel him. On her first day of worship Master Dani had been eager to sample her blood but the woman had been able to break his control, even if it was just for a moment, and touch him with her purifying energy. It was powerful, and although Master Dani was immune to it, he sensed that the woman was resourceful and dangerous. It might not be easy to _kill_ her. If her magic mutated, or if she was panicked enough, she was liable to burn him the next time she tried a stunt like that. Over his long years, and from the parasitic youkai of the distant past that had sired him, Master Dani had learned that there were some miko and occasionally some monks that were just _too_ powerful.

This woman was one of those. He had known it almost from the moment that Kaichou had delivered her. He drudged up her name, information that had been supplied to him by the worm: _Kagome Higurashi. _

"I go now? I go now?' the seagull asked. He put a screeching emphasis on _I._

"Yes, go now." Master Dani ordered, getting to his feet and stepping clear of the woman and the seabird.

In a moment the bird had moved over Kagome's limp body and extended his wings. His body shape blurred and then expanded rapidly. He grew just large enough to carry Kagome between his two feet and then, awkwardly adjusting his grip by nudging her with his beak, the seabird flapped his wings and took off into the air.

* * *

By the dawn of her second day with the kitsune women, Akisame spent most of her time bound and tied up. After the first day, which she'd spent in a tranquilized haze, Akisame had slept through the night after a drug had been given to her in her food or her drink or perhaps in both—she wasn't sure exactly how.

Kiremono transported her while she was drugged, barely able to move or to think, in and out of the caged platform. When she woke it was inside one of the tiny cell-like bedrooms, on the hard futon. Her arms and legs had been tied down to the floor. Upon waking Akisame devoted her time to trying to free herself but only succeeded in giving herself cuts on her wrists and her ankles from the ropes chafing.

When frustration and the minor pain of the chafing at last pushed her over the edge, Akisame started to shout and scream, making as much of a racket as she could. When the door to her bedroom prison opened Akisame recognized the kitsune woman Eigo.

"Let me out of here!" she demanded and made a show of pulling on the restraints again.

Eigo's eyes, the same green shade as Kiremono's and of the red-haired man that Akisame had seen originally, widened when she took in the damage that Akisame had done to herself. She crossed the small room and knelt at Akisame's bedside.

"Hush, hush. Stop making that noise. You're going to regret it…" As Eigo spoke she held her palm outward, as if trying to shield herself from Akisame's struggling and screaming.

"What? What are you going to do to me?" Akisame snapped, growling. "Fuckin' untie me!"

"You've cut yourself," Eigo observed, frowning sadly, "Brother won't like that. Please, you should stop shouting. It's early; none of our patrons are here. You should rest."

"Patrons," Akisame repeated, making a face. "What the hell kind of place is this?"

Eigo stared and gradually her face twisted into an expression of sympathy and pain.

Akisame bristled at it. "What the fuck are you looking at me like that for? Who are you people? Why are you keeping me here and putting me in that fucking cage and why the hell did you give me a bath?" Her face was burning but because of the ropes on her wrists and her legs, Akisame couldn't turn away from Eigo, she couldn't hide and she couldn't attack. She was helpless, like the women that cowered in the caged platform with her during the day, making Akisame the outcast amongst prisoners.

Eigo sniffled and wiped at her face with one small clawed hand. "I'm sorry."

In spite of her exposure to the incense and drugs over the past two days, Akisame's nose was still sharp enough to pick out the salt in Eigo's tears. "What the hell? Just untie me!"

"Stop shouting," Eigo ordered, her voice growing stern. "Brother already has a keen interest in you. You have to accept your place here. I wish you were older, it might be easier for you then…"

"Who the hell is Brother?" Akisame demanded. "Untie me!" She strained against the ropes and then grimaced at the pain that the motion caused her. She ignored it and didn't stop until Eigo laid her hands over Akisame's wrists, trying to still them.

"Please, I will try to help you. I am going to help your friend too, the demon slayer—but if Brother decides that you are too dangerous he will take you where I can't help you."

"Don't bother helping me—just untie me and I'll do the rest!" Akisame grinned mirthlessly, showing her teeth. In two days of struggling, drugs, and the bizarreness of her lack of memories and the current prison she was being kept in, Akisame had abandoned any consideration of escape by any other means aside from force. As far as she was concerned Eigo was an enemy. If she untied her that was enough redemption that Akisame wouldn't slaughter Eigo for being one of her captors. But the moment she was free she planned to rip through the paper walls, to tear through the little cell-like rooms. She would spill the blood of the shadow men lurking in the dark room where the caged platform was. She would cut Kiremono wide open and she would track down the red-haired man, yet another kitsune, and gut him like a fish.

For a moment Eigo and Akisame stared at one another. On some level they passed this information. Eigo considered bargaining with Akisame, slashing one of the ropes on her wrists and then leaving the room without looking back. Akisame would make her own exit, and it would be worthwhile…

The girl's eyes glowed starkly gold in her face, surrounded by the halo of long, wild black hair. Like any wild animal she reacted badly to being caged and it brought out the innermost demon inside her.

"Do you know the demon slayer?" Eigo asked.

Akisame cocked her head to one side and screwed up her face. "Yeah."

"I am going to get her out of here later today." Eigo's voice had dropped to a careful, conspirator's whisper. "If you are quiet today and Brother doesn't take you away, I will set you free as well."

Akisame narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Eigo with no small amount of doubt. "I don't trust you. Why don't you just let me out now?" As if to prove her eagerness at the idea Akisame pulled on her restraints again, gritting her teeth.

"Because I think you will get yourself killed," Eigo told her, bluntly. "Now please, stop struggling. Act like your friend the demon slayer does. Fighting as you do only attracts more attention, child. Our patrons, even Brother…"

"I am not your kid," Akisame snarled. "And I can take care of myself."

Eigo pursed her lips, her expression hardened. "Then why are you here?"

That question made Akisame flinch as if Eigo had slapped her. On impulse she retaliated with her usual brash cursing, a reaction that was so deeply instilled in her that it was as normal and natural as breathing or eating or sleeping. "Fuck you!"

Eigo rose to her feet and moved to the door. She hesitated there before opening it and looked back at Akisame, who was still struggling with the ropes, cutting and chafing herself even further. Her blood had soaked into the cords, making an ugly mess that Eigo would be stuck cleaning later while Akisame was sitting inside the caged platform. "You're lucky that I feel sorry for you. I wouldn't help you at all if I didn't and if you didn't know the demon slayer. You don't know what's good for you."

"Oh the hell I don't! _Untie me dammit!"_

Eigo slipped out of the room, her footsteps faded and vanished down the hall.

Alone in her little bedroom cell, Akisame's body began to shake. Her wrists and her ankles burned, but the ropes that restrained her showed no sign of weakening. She whimpered for a moment, closing her eyes and recalling the silent, stony demon slayer woman that had sat beside her in the caged platform the day before, as if guarding Akisame while she couldn't move. The demon slayer was the only familiar face that Akisame had seen. She wondered about her real family. Kiremono's words came back to her: _"Yes, a precious thing indeed. It's a wonder that her mother ever gave her up, as sweet as she is."_

Where was her mother? Where was her father? She knew, intuitively, that they existed, that she had known them. The image of the woman with black hair like her own, and the same facial features, flashed before her mind's eye again. _Mother? Why am I not with you?_ She tried to think of her father but could only visualize red, a sort of personified strength using color alone.

She growled with bitter frustration and tugged on the ropes on her wrists again. The pain of that action forced little noises of discomfort out of her throat, and after those had passed, Akisame opened her throat and began screaming, voicing her rage like an animal. The adrenaline was still coursing through her system, taxing her body and pumping up her muscles, preparing her for action and for blood, but with the restraints her energy went nowhere. She had only one outlet, and that came from her voice, from her powerful lungs.

An unknown amount of time later, Akisame heard a sound at the door and stopped screaming to turn her head and stare at her latest visitor. This guest entered with more caution and mystery than Eigo. While Akisame lay flat on her back with her ankles and wrists bleeding and her hair flung out around her in an untamed, spidery mass, the stranger hovered in her doorway as if shy.

Breathing hard, Akisame felt her gut constrict with an anticipatory dread. She pulled with more energy on her restraints. "Who the fuck are you? What do you want?"

As if her words had brought him to life, the lurker at her door entered the room. Akisame recognized his long flowing red hair immediately. He smiled at her, cold and tight-lipped. "Hello little vixen. You are up early this morning. I heard that you slept well all yesterday and last night. My sisters have been taking good care of you, haven't they?"

"Got to hell you bastard!" Akisame bit out, turning her head from side to side.

The red-haired man inhaled deeply and his smile widened into a grin. "I can smell your blood. What a sweet, fascinating thing you are. One-quarter inuyoukai only, but so fierce. I wonder—where did you come from, my little vixen?"

Akisame's only response was to growl, deep and long inside her chest.

"I aim to find out, even if you won't tell me. Perhaps I will make you a deal. If you play nice like a good little inuyoukai bitch then I'll let you go back to your family. Or—do you even have a family to go back to?"

"Untie me and I'll give you a good piece of my mind," Akisame taunted, baring her teeth at him. "I'll kill you."

The red-haired man laughed lightly, through his nose. "I expect you'll aim to. My name is Ratsuwan. Tell me little vixen, what is your name?"

"Fuck you!"

"I do believe I may take you up on that invitation." Ratsuwan licked his lips and let his green eyes move over her young body. "A vixen with such a foul mouth, one would think she had never known safety—but here you lie before me untouched and pure. I can see it and smell it on you. You have the look of a pampered, spoiled child." He stalked toward her, walking slowly, his eyes never leaving her. "It's a mystery that I will make sure I am the first to solve. So, little vixen," he was at her bedside now, leaning over her, "tell me what your name is."

Akisame was nearly hyperventilating. Something fluttered in her chest, a hummingbird caught inside her ribs. She clenched her jaw and growled without ceasing. Her eyes stared up at him, wide open, as if she was afraid to blink or perhaps she'd forgotten how to do it. Just as she'd forgotten who she was and who her family was and how she'd come to be tied to a futon and leered at by a scary kitsune man with red hair.

Ratsuwan's hand shot out. His clawed fingers gripped her entire lower jaw and arched her face upwards to face him. Akisame's growl intensified, growing higher in pitch as her panic reached a crescendo. She parted her lips to show her gnashed teeth to him, gleaming white canines and all. Her eyes glowed, alight from within, but she did not have enough demonic power to increase her strength enough to break the ropes and escape or defend herself. She continued to be helpless.

The kitsune man returned her false-smile of animalistic, instinctual teeth-baring and then he lowered his face down and pressed his lips hard onto hers.

Akisame's breath whistled past his face. She was breathing so fast that the whistle sounded like the wind, continuous. She fought, twisting, but her range of motion was limited and Ratsuwan had a strong hold on her face. His fingertips and claws were pressing into her so hard that they were certain to leave bruises on her clear, otherwise blemish-free skin. When she moved, Ratsuwan moved with her. He lightened his pressure on her lips, moving his own as if trying to speak while he kissed her.

Somewhere, in the back of Akisame's head, a thought rushed past her panicked brain. _This is my very first kiss._

She made a noise, cutting off the standard defensive growl that had been issuing out of her throat. It was a sort of coughing sob. Her exhalation flooded into Ratsuwan's mouth and the kitsune groaned, pulling away from her at last. He watched Akisame's face after he had pulled away and grinned slyly. "So the little vixen does feel fear! How delightful! A creature that fears can be tamed."

Ratsuwan cupped her face with one hand, pulling her head upward from the futon again, forcing her to look at him. His green eyes twinkled with excitement and mirth. "I will break you, little one. Rest assured of that."

Akisame's face twitched, her stomach threatened to empty itself. Her body was shaking. Even so she despised the expression of power and control on Ratsuwan's face. She worked her tongue and her throat and opened her mouth, puckered her lips—and spat into his face.

Ratsuwan pulled back from her and wiped his face with one hand, slowly and calmly. When he had finished he stood up and stared down at her again. "It is too early for this, darling. I will give you time to think on your future."

The kitsune man turned and left, shutting the door behind him.

Alone, once more, Akisame closed her eyes. Her body went into an explosive, uncontrollable fit of shivering. Her lips curled up disgustedly and she tried to keep herself from swallowing. To swallow was like accepting Ratsuwan's unwanted kiss, to take any part of him, no matter how miniscule, was unacceptable. When she pulled on her restraints for the umpteenth time, Akisame let the tears come at last, spilling out of her eyes in silence.

* * *

Sundown saw Koinu's fever crack at long last after Inuyasha had administered a hodgepodge medicine that he'd ground up and mixed on a large flat rock. The remains of everything that Inuyasha hadn't used in the medicine were scattered at the edges of the campsite like offal. Shippo had brought the herbs and Inuyasha had sorted through them hastily, bringing each to his nose and sometimes gumming the plants. He didn't bother cleaning them of dirt, just took the leaves or the roots or the stems and began grinding them up.

After that had been done, Inuyasha had ordered Shippo to stay and watch over Koinu. The hanyou wasn't gone long but he returned winded and covered in blood. Shippo gaped at him and then inundated him with questions, "Inuyasha! What happened? Did you run into a demon? Why are you covered in blood?"

"Shut up and start cutting this up." He handed Shippo a globular, bloody hunk of meat.

The kit stared at the dripping, crimson mass and his nose twitched. His green eyes took on a gleam of hunger. "This is liver!"

"If you eat it I'll kill you," Inuyasha threatened him almost idly, barely putting any force into the words. "It's for Koinu."

There were other ingredients, many of them just as bloody as the liver. Inuyasha sliced them up with his claws and then discarded the parts he didn't want. Some he hung over the fire to let them smoke or to dry the blood slightly first. Koinu's aversion to blood stuck with the hanyou and he tried to wring the raw meats out, afraid that his son would get sick and vomit if he didn't. When Inuyasha had finally finished and forced it down Koinu's throat, the hanyou and the kitsune sat back and ate what was left of the liver and some of the finer meats in silence, waiting for Koinu to show improvement.

(A/N: As I recall, there's an episode where Inuyasha displays a surprising knowledge of healing foods and goes to great lengths to make it for Kagome when she has a bad cold and his cure works like a charm. I tried youtubing it but got no results really. Who taught him that? Does he say it was his mother? If so Izayoi was a surprising woman because I think it was a rather foul concoction.)

The young man lied near the heat of the fire, curled into a pathetic ball, breathing steadily but still shivering. Shippo and Inuyasha sat without speaking much, tracking the passage of time in their minds, always waiting. Their focus was on Koinu though they didn't discuss him aloud.

Koinu was caught inside his mind, in delirious dreams that his brain fabricated and spun before his closed eyelids. The dreams crossed over with memories and with reality. One moment Shippo was beside him, the next it was Iruka lashing out at him, ready to strangle him. Even after his fever had broken, and his body erupted in a thick layer of slimy sweat, his dreams continued.

His feet twitched and jerked while he ran in his dream after the seabird that was carrying away his mother, his sister, Sango and Kasai. But then the bird was gone and Koinu knew that he was now the one being pursued. He was running through endless, twisting corridors. Somewhere behind him there were men chasing him, shouting and cursing at him. Their feet made the wooden floors and rungs beneath his feet vibrate. Sliding doors lined the sides; inside each was a small, square room with a futon. Koinu panted as he poked his head inside the doors, searching for someone, shouting a name.

Lying beside the fire with his face warmed from it and his back quivering with cold away from it, Koinu whimpered aloud, "Aki. Aki."

Inuyasha tensed, his ears pricking up and his expression souring. "His fever broke."

Shippo had no visible reaction other than the slightest downturn at the corners of his mouth.

Koinu stumbled over some small wooden stairs that were suddenly in his way. The maze-like hallways were gone. An outdoor pavilion stood before him instead, packed with monks and priestesses. Koinu saw their leader in bulky robes passing through the aisles of men and women. He saw the man kneel and bite into his victims, heard the cries of pain. Time sped up and soon the man was at the end of the rows of the priestesses. In only the way that sleepers can, Koinu was able to see the entire pavilion and then instantaneously also experience the scene through his mother's eyes. The way the man halted before her and started to kneel to bite her too. He felt his mother's inability to rise and run away or to stand and fight. Her panic was his own.

Koinu's hands curled into fists. His claws bit into his own flesh, leaving miniature crescent moons in his palms. _"No! Mom!"_

When Kagome freed one hand and touched the man with fingers that pulsed and glowed with her spiritual energy, Koinu was jarred awake, panting and blinking with shock. He sat up next to the fire, wobbling, and shook his head. His ears quivered, his eyes burned.

"You're awake!" Shippo called, smiling. "The medicine worked!"

Koinu grimaced and rubbed at his chest, feeling the thickness and pressure inside his lungs. He gave a few small coughs, testing his airway before he spoke. "I had…strange dreams…" he looked back up at the kit and at his father and saw that their faces had changed, blanking with alarm. "What?"

"Koinu?" Shippo asked, his voice shook with shock.

Inuyasha's ears laid down flat atop his head, the corners of his eyes crinkled in a somber, stiff expression. He moved toward his son and crouched next to him, his gaze locked carefully on Koinu as if the pup might suddenly attack him, or as if he thought that the pup in front of him, who looked so much like him, was actually an imposter. "Koinu, look at me—let me see your hands."

Koinu lifted them obediently as if he might take his father's hand but the motion made Inuyasha cringe, withdrawing as if Koinu had frightened or intimidated him. Frowning at his father's reaction, Koinu blustered, "What? What is it? Why are you both looking at me like that?" He began to shiver. His ears drooped pathetically with his remaining weakness.

"Inuyasha," Shippo breathed, "What does it _mean?"_

Exasperated, Koinu demanded, "What? What does what mean?"

Inuyasha scowled. "You can't see it? Koinu, you're hands are fucking glowing."

Koinu turned his hands over to examine them more closely and gasped at what he saw. His eyes were blurry from his recent sleep, and from his prolonged fever, but even with his poor sight Koinu saw the flicker of purple energy flowing over the lines in his hands. It sparked between his fingers like lightening between the tops of skyscrapers. When he had woken and rubbed his chest Shippo and Inuyasha had seen the glow even against the orange light of the campfire and Koinu's brown haori.

"Your eyes have changed too," Inuyasha informed him somberly. His father made a motion, as if to touch Koinu, but stopped midway there, rethinking the action.

"Yeah, it's hard to tell with the firelight but," Shippo shifted nervously on the other side of their small campsite and didn't finish whatever it was that he'd been saying.

"What's happening to me?" Koinu whimpered, his ears flattening. The muscles around his eyes twitched with fatigue and shock as he wriggled his fingers in front of his face, trying to comprehend what he was seeing.

"It looks just like Kagome's power," Shippo murmured. The fear in his face was slowly transforming into awe.

The color began to fade, fizzling and dulling, seeping back into Koinu's body.

"It doesn't hurt you." Inuyasha's words weren't a question; it was an observation, a statement of truth. He cocked his head and his mouth worked into a hard, thin line, reaching a decision. With a sudden, swift action, Inuyasha reached out and snatched Koinu's hand in his own, squeezing it tightly.

"Father!" Koinu shouted, trying to free himself immediately. "Don't touch it!"

Inuyasha hissed with pain and let go. His palm was burned, singed red with Koinu's touch. That experiment had confirmed it: Koinu carried Kagome's spiritual power to some extent. It shouldn't have been possible, but Inuyasha had stopped believing in _impossibilities_ long ago. He tucked his burned hand into his long red haori sleeve, hiding it from his son's distressed, pained gaze.

"This has never happened before?" Inuyasha asked.

Koinu shook his head emphatically, like a child denying an accusation because he feared the resulting punishment. "No, never."

"You need to be careful with it. You could hurt someone with it. Your mother…" he stopped, momentarily distracted and troubled by the knowledge that Kagome was far away and they needed her more and more with each passing hour. "…she will know how to deal with this. Maybe it happened just because you're sick."

Koinu spoke up then, hurriedly, "I saw Mom in my dream. Mom used her powers. That was when I woke up this way."

Inuyasha's expression changed again, dropping the stiff control he'd found before and replacing it with open fear. "What did you see?"

"It was just a dream…" Koinu swallowed hard, fighting the need to cough. He looked back at his hands and saw that the purple light had vanished, leaving no trace. "It was just a dream."

"What did you see, dammit!" Inuyasha snapped, his voice growing higher with encroaching panic.

Koinu peered at his father in misery. His ears drooped. "Please, it was _just a dream…_" He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. "What's happening to me?"

Inuyasha growled and pulled away, standing up to his full height. "Pack everything up Shippo. Let's get back on the road and the hell out of here."

* * *

A/N: Sorry that was long, had a terrible time ending it.

"_Among demons there is a lucrative trade of humans," Miroku spoke with a disconnected air of intellectuality that made Kohimu frown with distaste. He was more like Sango at heart, passionate and fiery. As he listened to Miroku his expression was almost venomous. "Some demons take human souls as a source of power. Some of them abduct humans as servants or slaves. As far as I know a bird would have little use for four women—and with Kagome and Kasai possessing spiritual powers…" he frowned and shook his head. "It makes little sense."_

"_What if it just killed Kasai?" Tisoki asked, his voice growing higher with fear. "That would make sense if I were a demon…"_


	17. The Chosen

A/N: I am currently house-sitting for my parents who are on vacation in CA. So I'm all alone in a big house and that depressed me surprisingly a lot because I miss them and it's for a whole 3 weeks and watching over an elderly lab and a min-pin chihuahua mix with ADHD is actually a lot of work. When my family was around I could sit around and write all day and chores were spread around, but alone I have to pick up all the poop, drug the dog, walk him, feed them, let him out every little bit. It doesn't sound like much but it is surprisingly time consuming and so I have a bit less time to myself. Anyway, so my writing schedule may be altered on nonexistent for the next three weeks. This update (obviously) is secure, but the next may not be set for a bit. BUT btw **THANK YOU EVERYONE! **I got an amazing 14 reviewers last chapter. I am honored by your responses! Here's hoping I can keep pleasing you.

Okay, I had to do some research (but note it wasn't like massively thorough because I can't actually pick up my bags and go there) to get down and dirty with place-names and geography and such of Japan. Oh the headaches. Watching the show I get the feeling sometimes that Japan was mostly empty but dotted with little villages here and there. I know from my art history class that Japan did a lot of changing of capitals and such. Some places clearly have been settled for hundreds of years, but others didn't exist (?) in the Feudal Era or they went by a different name. I don't know if Tokyo went by a different name (I think it did) but it wasn't the capital for a long time. Anyway I'm going to pretend I'm an expert-ish but in reality I'm not so anyone that has seen thse places for real and sees something I write that was way, way off…I ask for pity. I am a poor college student; I will probably never see Japan. As Dane Cook says, "I did my best!"

Weirdly enough, my college city here in da UP of Michigan has a Japanese sister-city: OMG SWEET! (Sorry but this amuses me) I just searched wikipedia and found Marquette. Funny to search all these exotic places and then dig into my own home and see it there. YES! (It's actually pretty impressive and I keep taking it for granted. Go wiki Marquette.)

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last Chapter: Kagome found Kasai and they talked, making Kasai remember her past a little. Master Dani arrived and forcibly took Kagome away. Kasai chased after him, but she is under his influence and couldn't fight him. Master Dani sent Kagome away, freeing her from his shrine-temple. Akisame made a fuss and revealed how little she knows about the place she's being held captive in. Eigo the kitsune said she would help her get out, but "Brother" (Ratsuwan) paid Aki a visit and forced Aki to have her first kiss, promising that he would _break_ her later. Inuyasha and Shippo treated Koinu's fever. Koinu dreamed feverishly and saw where his mother and his sister were being kept. When he woke his hands were covered in Kagome's purifying magic.

* * *

**The Chosen**

When his sons appeared without Sango and Kasai in tow, Miroku knew long before they began their story that things had gone horrifically wrong. It was written in their faces, in the way they walked with their shoulders stooped and their faces drooping. Kohimu told him quickly and quietly that Sango and Kasai were missing, kidnapped. He would've told Miroku more but the monk silenced him and went to work without any further time wasted on words.

His youngest sons, Koudo and Riki, were still too young for Miroku to feel comfortable taking them out. Riki was approaching an appropriate age where Miroku would begin apprenticing the boy and taking him out on small journeys and slayings or exorcisms, but Koudo was only seven. Miroku hired a babysitter and told Riki that he was in charge. Riki was to be Koudo's father-figure while Miroku was gone, to be brave and to pray for their mother and for their sister.

It was difficult, but Miroku ignored Riki's silent tears and his quivering chin, as well as Koudo's loud sobbing. Both boys longed to join their father and their brothers to help search for Kasai and Sango, but Miroku was unwilling to take them. Their prayers, he hoped, would be of more help than their weapons.

On the road Kohimu walked at his side, telling him the story of their hunt, of Iruka's defeat and Hakgei's revenge. As Kohimu reported the success of their mission, Miroku stopped his son asking, "Did the lord pay you?"

Kohimu blinked, baffled. Since he and his brothers had visited Lord Kishokachi with Iruka's severed head Kohimu hadn't had a chance to consider such a thing. Inuyasha had come so swiftly telling them of the women's capture that he hadn't had time to consider money at all. During their journey Inuyasha had, as was his preferred custom unless the weather was bad, slept outside and caught food on the fly. It was a lifestyle that required no money.

"Yes, we were paid." Kohimu patted his robes, a short kimono with puffy, dirtied peasant pants. His palm rattled where it landed, hitting the coin purse that Lord Kishokachi had given them in exchange for Iruka's head.

"Give it to me," Miroku ordered.

Kohimu obeyed and Miroku jangled the purse, sorting through it, counting. His expression lightened with relief as he registered that the sum was considerable.

Kohimu's face was flushed with anger as he watched his father counting. "Why does the money matter when Mom and Kasai are—"

"Money," Miroku sighed, pouring the coins back into the leather purse, "Inspires people to talk. And we have nowhere to look."

Masuyo spoke up from behind them. "Uncle Inuyasha said they were on the west coast."

"And they were taken by a bird," Tisoki added. "Shippo saw it."

"Among demons there is a lucrative trade of humans," Miroku spoke with a disconnected air of intellectuality that made Kohimu frown with distaste. He was more like Sango at heart, passionate and fiery. As he listened to Miroku his expression was almost venomous. "Some demons take human souls as a source of power. Some of them abduct humans as servants or slaves. As far as I know a bird would have little use for four women—and with Kagome and Kasai possessing spiritual powers…" he frowned and shook his head. "It makes little sense."

"What if it just killed Kasai?" Tisoki asked, his voice growing higher with fear. "That would make sense if I were a demon…"

"Shut up Tisoki!" Kohimu shouted, turning around and pushing his brother in the shoulder, knocking him straight to the ground.

"Kohimu! Don't!" Masuyo cried out, whimpering as he raced to lay himself over Tisoki to protect his older brother from another blow.

Miroku caught Kohimu's hand in his own, the formally cursed hand. "Control yourself, Kohimu," he warned. "You do nothing but waste our time like this." He turned toward Tisoki then and sighed. "Get up. Let's get moving—and don't say things like that. Panic does no one any good." He pursed his lips, unknowingly echoing his wife's words to Kasai several days prior: "We can't live in fear."

With Masuyo's helping hand, Tisoki had gotten back onto his feet. He rubbed at his shoulder where Kohimu had punched him and stared sheepishly at the ground. He asked, "How do we find them? Where do we start looking?"

Miroku stared to the western horizon and squeezed the coin purse in his fist while his mind worked, searching. He ignored the way that Kohimu stared at him unhappily, his features marred by anger and doubt. Miroku began speaking, thinking aloud. "I'm sure Inuyasha has already gone on ahead of us. He may already be on the western coast. Inuyasha will use his nose and Shippo's ears to gather information, but he will be as lost as we are." He drew in a long, uneven breath and closed his violet eyes. His voice dropped into a murmur. "There is one thing we could do that Inuyasha would never try."

"What is it?" Masuyo asked.

"We may attempt to extract Lord Sesshomaru's help."

Kohimu instantly disagreed. "That would distract from our search. Mom and Kasai are out there and we can't afford to go running off to him! He'd never help us anyway!"

"He is in our debt, and parts of the western coast lie in his lands. It is probable, even likely that he would know of this bird that carried them off." Miroku continued to stare off at the horizon, his arms folded over his chest, his golden staff resting against one shoulder.

"But that would still take too much time, and there's nothing that says he would help us," Kohimu insisted, bitterly. "We're wasting time standing here talking about it."

"But Dad's right," Masuyo chimed in, his young voice wavering with sadness. "We don't know where to look for them…"

"We could track down bird youkai," Tisoki suggested abruptly, lifting his head as the idea struck him. "We could hunt bird youkai until we learned where they took Mom and Kasai."

"That will take time too," Miroku pointed out, sighing. He opened his eyes at last and lifted his staff. "Let's walk and discuss it." He led the way at a steady, quick pace. Kohimu lagged behind, falling in line with Tisoki while Masuyo slipped in alongside Miroku.

"What are we going to do?" Masuyo asked, pushing the topic ahead.

Miroku shook his head. "I believe we should head west for the time being and listen for any word of them. If we hear nothing it may be advisable for us to change paths and seek out Lord Sesshomaru's help."

"I've got a better idea," Kohimu bellowed, not bothering to hide the anger in his voice. "You and Masuyo can go for help. Tisoki and I will go on without you and keep searching."

"Kohimu," Tisoki mumbled, disapprovingly.

"If that is what you feel is best, Kohimu," Miroku said, puffing with mild exertion as they walked, "I will not try to stop you. I trust you to stay safe and out of trouble."

"I don't trust him," Masuyo muttered.

"You shut up!" Kohimu snapped, glaring at the back of his little brother's head. He stared at the ground as they walked, grinding his teeth together in irritation and suppressed agony. A lot of his anger stemmed from a surprising self-hatred. Kohimu had been cruel to his sister before she'd been abducted, and he felt certain that he hadn't treated or respected his mother as she deserved either. Now he was committing the same sins against his father and both of his brothers—but the behavior was almost beyond his control, much to his shame. It was a perpetual cycle of guilt and anger that he took out unfairly on his family.

He wanted to strike Masuyo but restrained himself. As they traveled on, Kohimu let his mind wander, wrapping itself about the specifics of a demon hunt. The feel of the bowstring in his strong fingers, the feathered ends of the arrow, and the death cries of the youkai. He would put everything he had, all of his pent up guilt and self-loathing into hunting the bird youkai to discover where his mother and his sister had been taken, hidden away.

But if they were dead, as Tisoki had suggested that Kasai might be because of her spiritual power, Kohimu would never have a chance to rectify his cruelty. It would be a guilt that he carried for the rest of his life, a sin that would be judged for at his death.

* * *

"Hey," a male voice called, "wake up."

Something hard prodded her shoulder and Kagome sat up, gasping. She found herself staring at a pair of straw sandals and the dusty legs of a boy. She shook her head and felt her neck cramp up. She laid her hand over it, wincing. The ridge of scar tissue over her neck had fallen as if deflating. The pain that her probing fingertips brought was nominal and Kagome could even feel an itch beginning in the wound, a sign of healing.

"You're a long ways from a temple, priestess!" The boy that had woken her laughed. He had a walking stick, covered with dried mud at one end. Kagome saw it and knew that the boy had used it to force her awake.

She rubbed her forehead and moaned. "Can you tell me where I am?"

"Had a little too much sake, perchance?" the boy teased her. He knelt and extended a hand out to her. "My name's Nobe."

Kagome accepted his hand and got to her feet. She was still dressed in the regalia of a priestess but her hair was messy and unrestrained, falling in her face. "Where are we?" Kagome asked again.

"In the middle of nowhere," Nobe replied cheerily.

"What is the name of the nearest village?" Kagome tried to take a step and wobbled. Nobe was at her side, offering her a shoulder to lean on. "I have to know where I am or—" her voice rose growing more desperate. "Where is the nearest temple? Have you ever heard of Master Dani, Nobe?"

Nobe's mood sobered as he realized that Kagome was distressed, perhaps even in danger or panicked. "Well miss; the nearest place worth knowing that I can think of is Niigata. And as for a temple I'd say try at Niigata again. I haven't heard of your Master Dani, sorry."

Kagome rubbed her face with both hands, smearing her cheeks with dirt. "Niigata," she moaned. She was on the other side of Japan. During her time in Master Dani's temple and shrine grounds, Kagome hadn't been able to recognize the terrain as any specific place. She recalled that Master Dani's land had been near the sea, and mountainous. She had heard the waves crashing and roaring just before she's gone to sleep in the night. Niigata was flat, a wide swathe of relatively flat land ideal for endless fields of rice paddies.

The road she had woken on was dusty, in the hollow between two steep hills—but backing up what Nobe had said, Kagome saw that there were wetlands in the distance where dragonflies zipped about and gnats hung in the air like overactive dust motes.

"Are you okay?" Nobe asked her, his brow furrowed with concern.

Kagome swallowed her tears, burying them as Kasai's face swam before her, questioning and lost. _I'm sorry, Kasai. I don't know where to find you…_

"Where are you going, Nobe?" Kagome asked, sniffling and regaining her composure. "Can I accompany you?"

"Sure you can. I'm heading inland," Nobe planted his walking stick hard into the ground with a solid thud. He let Kagome lean on him while he started walking, ascending the next hill on the road. "I don't want to spend my time under the sun. A trader passed through our village and told us stories about a village inland where warriors live together and study monsters." Nobe's voice had the lilt of an excited boy telling a legend, but Kagome thought she picked out truth in his words.

"Do you mean the demon slayer's village?" she asked.

"I guess—yeah that's it. If I could be a demon slayer, like a real warrior. Not some silly farmer picking apples and plums and…"

"I've been to the demon slayer's village," Kagome interrupted him, gently.

"Really?" Nobe gasped.

"Yes, and I think that's just where I want to go to. I have some friends that could help you Nobe. That will be my thanks to you for your helping me." She sighed heavily, fighting fatigue and a growing sense of failure. "I have to help my friends rescue their daughter and…" she hesitated, feeling the weight of her words more and more. "I have to find my husband and my children too."

"You were separated?" Nobe asked, sympathetically. "My older brother's wife got separated from him on a journey and a monster got her." Nobe sniffed and shook his head. He'd bitten his lip hard, squaring his jaw to fight the show of emotion over his face, but it didn't stop his voice from trembling. "The farmers were useless against it, so I figured once I got big enough I'd do something about it."

Kagome smiled with genuine warmth as they limped down the road. "The world could use a few more people like you, Nobe."

The teenager blushed and looked down, trying ineffectively to hide his face. "Thank you very much."

* * *

On the morning of her third "worship" ceremony, Kasai thought she had gained enough knowledge from the other priestesses—and from Kenpo to monk—to understand Master Dani with a demon slayer's eyes.

Since Kagome's disappearance, Kasai had spent her time ruthlessly investigating the shrine and temple grounds, as well as delving into her own memories. She attempted to leave once but the pain in her neck had threatened to overwhelm her and Kasai had given up. She preferred using her own legs to get away rather than passing out and having Master Dani retrieve her. She spoke with Kenpo frequently, learning everything that he had to offer about Master Dani and the parasitic nature of the shrine and temple.

Like Sango in the brothel some distance away to the north, Kasai found a voice that spoke in her head with an intellectual's air of detached calmness. It analyzed Master Dani as a demon, categorizing him and picking out his theoretical strengths and weaknesses.

Kasai worked out a longwinded, careful analysis of the situation as she understood it. Master Dani was a parasite with the power to control his hosts' behavior. He was immune to spiritual energy. His bulky body and round shape concealed at least one more set of arms, a trait that Kenpo told her about. He was not a mammalian youkai, although there appeared to be hair around his face and coming out of his ears as if he were a harmless bald man, Kasai had been close enough to see that these hairs were more like bristles. They reminded her of the insect-youkai she and her brothers had hunted many times over the years.

If she focused on Master Dani as if he were a lesson as a demon slayer, her fear became controllable and Kasai found she could breathe easily.

By the time Kasai shuffled into the "worship" session with the other priestesses, she had actually grown enough curiosity that her fear was cool and stony inside of her, ignorable. She watched Master Dani ascend the stairs at the far end of the outdoor pavilion and greet them. His chanting began and the parasitic, blood-sucking demon passed through the lines of monks. As usual, Kasai noted that Master Dani did not bite any of the monks dressed in blue—the color of the dying. He moved through the lines of priestesses dressed completely in red and didn't bite any of them either.

But in the rows of monks dressed in red, and of the priestesses in red and white, Master Dani knelt and drank his fill. On her very first worship session Kasai had seen four victims. On her second it was six. Master Dani appeared especially thirsty on the third morning. He drank from seven of his disciples. To keep herself from shedding useless tears in terror, Kasai forced herself to watch the master's victims. After he bit them the monks and priestesses collapsed, gripped by convulsions and weakness.

Kenpo had told her that the aftereffects of the bite were excruciating. It caused cramping in the gut and after a time the victim's skin and eyes began to turn a sickly shade of yellow or gray. Kenpo also explained his theory on why Master Dani never bit the sickly priestesses and monks.

"After a few bites the stomach cramps and the skin illness appear. When their muscles start to waste Master Dani calls them "the Ascended." He gives them new robes and doesn't bite them again. But they die anyway. Once someone Ascends and changes robe color, they're doomed." Kenpo had whispered this to her while he gardened, sitting on his hands and knees in the grass, pulling weeds from beneath a decorative tree with dark leaves.

"But why doesn't he bite them?" Kasai asked.

"Have you ever gotten a rash from a tick bite?" Kenpo asked her, his eyes glittering darkly. "And what about a snake bite? Master Dani is like that. There is something in his bite that kills us." His face twisted, the only sign that he registered what he was saying. He lifted one of his dirt-smeared hands and rubbed at his neck where Master Dani's bite marks were gradually healing.

"But if it's a poison it kills very slowly. Some of the priestesses have been here a year or more. I don't know how often they're bitten…" Kasai touched her own neck self-consciously, aware that she had _not yet been bitten._ Every morning during "worship," Master Dani paused by her and then moved on to bite a girl further down her row. He had marked her somehow, but he had never bitten her.

"I would guess that everyone here is bitten once a week," Kenpo said. "The ongoing exposure kills us." Kenpo sighed and looked away from her. "At the end, in the evenings, Master Dani summons a few of the Ascended and we never see them again." Kenpo's reached out and plucked the head off one of the flowers. He ripped the petals off and shredded them viciously. "He eats them."

Kasai blinked as she snapped out of her reverie and found herself staring up at Master Dani. He smiled at her, revealing his tiny but pointed teeth. Kasai counted the rows that extended back into his mouth. _Six…_?

Master Dani passed by her and stopped above the priestess named Mirimi. He knelt and embraced her, pulling her close to him. Mirimi whimpered pathetically, her jaw moved stiffly, the muscles flickering in her temple. She cried out and shut her eyes as Master Dani bit into her neck. Kasai watched the floor, opening and closing her clenched fists.

Master Dani left Mirimi lying flat on the floor. The girl had one hand pressed to her neck, the other wrapped around her belly. Her eyes rolled back into her head, showing the whites. Master Dani walked on, casually wiping his mouth on his long sleeve as he began his chant anew.

At the end of the line he addressed the priestesses and monks, saying, "Today the glorious time has come when I will choose the Chosen from among you! I will walk among you as you bow before me," as if on cue, Kasai felt the pain sear through her neck and her strength left her. She fell to the floor, smacking her forehead and her cheek to the hard wood floor. "And those that I choose I will touch. You Chosen ones will rise and follow me to my personal chambers."

Kasai struggled against the thickness that had descended on her limbs. She imagined herself running free and unrestrained and saw her fingers twitch as well as felt her toes wiggle—but the pain in her neck rose, obscuring the rest of the world and all other sensation for a moment. Suddenly she heard and felt Master Dani's footsteps treading over her. He slowed as he always did before her and knelt. Kasai heard his robes rustle as he put his hand over her shoulder.

She tried to shout out something in defiance but her mouth muscles could only quiver in their ongoing, forced silence.

As Master Dani moved past her, Kasai felt her limbs growing lighter. She sat up and stared after Master Dani's wide, round form. She opened her mouth and choked out, "I'm not—" but then her jaw snapped taut, cutting off her own words. Her legs moved of their own volition, slipping through the line of priestesses dressed in red and white. She fell in behind Master Dani, breathing hard with fear and disbelieve. Her legs felt numb to her but they moved as if she had chosen to walk after Master Dani. She caught sight of priestesses following her, each wearing the same look of consternation.

Master Dani finished his pass over his children and thanked them. Without motioning to his Chosen, the parasite descended the stairs and led the way toward his personal chambers across the compound. Kasai was in the lead, helpless to stop her legs from walking, step by step, after Master Dani. Priestesses and monks, the healthy and the dying, followed.

With a jolt, Kasai recognized Kenpo from among the monks.

The way had been cleared for them. Master Dani had opened doors and arranged mats for them to sit on in a broad circle around a small, upraised platform where he would sit and watch over them as if he were a true master. Kasai felt heat swarm over her face, an outward sign of her helpless rage and shame.

They sat on the mats, like students waiting for a lesson, and faced their parasitic master. Master Dani sat last, smiling his tight, closed-lipped smile the entire time. "Welcome," he greeted them in a raspy voice. "My children. My truest children. You are my Chosen, my future."

Kasai wanted to speak. Her tongue moved in her mouth but her jaw stayed clamped shut against her will. She searched quickly around the circle and saw various expressions and emotions. There were sixteen Chosen, seated neatly before the master.

"Eat," Master Dani ordered them.

For the first time Kasai saw that there was a bowl of noodles before her. Her hands jerked spasmodically in her lap, reaching toward the bowl, picking up the chopsticks and curling her fingers around them. Kasai raged against Master Dani's controlling power. She closed her eyes and kept her mouth shut, her tongue on the roof of her mouth, pressed to her hard palate. The teaching voice in her head instructed in the calm but serious tone that she realized was her father's: _Do not ever eat specially offered food that a demon presents you. Special meals are almost always traps._

Out of the corner of her eye, Kasai saw Kenpo slurping on his bowl of noodles. His brow was furrowed, troubled. Apparently he saw the same trickery that Kasai sensed.

The bowl pressed tightly up against Kasai's lips, driven there by her own hands. The pressure was too much and the edge of the bowl parted her lips. Kasai's teeth remained tightly clenched but the liquid poured into her mouth. Some of it flowed over her lips and chin, spilling onto her chest and washing down her priestess's robes.

Pain shot through Kasai's neck then and she involuntarily opened her jaw wide. The remaining liquid rushed down her throat. To avoid choking, Kasai swallowed it. The broth was salty but tasted normal. Kasai's disobedient, traitorous hands lowered the bowl back to the small tray in front of her. When she looked around that the circle she saw that many of the others had attempted to avoid drinking as well. Broth and noodles were plastered to their robes in a disgusting mess.

"Very good," Master Dani told them, still smiling. "In a moment we shall see who among you will become truly Chosen. Sixteen of you sit before me, loyal disciples, but only four are needed…"

A monk on Kasai's right suddenly choked, gagging. He fell forward, clutching at his throat. His eyes were wide, unseeing. His tongue protruded. With desperation, the monk, little more than a child, scratched so hard at his own throat that he left wide, bleeding gashes with his fingernails.

Another monk fell forward, choking too. Kasai's heart pounded, her throat seemed to tighten. She tried to get to her feet but her legs were heavy, leaden. She could not move.

A priestess collapsed, convulsing wildly.

For the first time Kasai saw that the monks and the priestess that had fallen were dressed in dark blue and all red, the colors marking them as Ascended, near-to-death. Their bodies fell still in a few moments, their eyes unseeing and staring wide.

Master Dani grinned, exposing his six rows of tiny, pointed teeth. "Aw, the first Culling. The weak are separated from the crop. You thirteen are the remaining Chosen. You will serve the Four, my heirs. Now my Chosen, lift your hands up…"

The thirteen that still lived, ashen and shaking with terror, did as they were told, wincing at the pain in their necks when they tried to resist. Blue and purple light filled the room, landing on Master Dani's face and bald head like colored spotlights. His beady eyes darted about the room, taking in the scene.

Kasai's fingers twitched as she realized that her palms were sparking with purple light. She had never seen her spiritual power exposed before. It tickled, crackling up and down her palms and between her fingers. She looked around the room and saw that most of the other monks and priestesses had palms that glowed a startling light blue. Kenpo, on her far left, also had palms that blazed purple.

"Ah," Master Dani sighed. He rose to his feet and stepped down from his platform. He walked past the dead body of one of the monks, kicking it carelessly aside as he went. Master Dani stopped at the first of his Chosen, a monk dressed in blue, that displayed purple-glowing hands. He snatched the monk's bony wrists and pulled him close.

Kasai peeked out of the corner of her eye, frozen where she sat with her palms lifted, revealing the damming purple light. Her mind raced, searching for the calm intellectual voice of her father. _What does this mean?_ She asked it. There was only silence and the pounding of her terrified heart.

Master Dani gripped the monk's jaw and propped his mouth open wide. He lowered his face to the monk's and his throat flexed…

The voice inside Kasai's mind rose, drowning out even her heartbeat at last. _It is an egg. There are two strategies of reproduction in the parasite world. One is free to lay its eggs in the natural world. The other requires a host's body as a carrier._

_I am the carrier, _Kasai realized. _I am the host._

* * *

Eigo was true to her word. The ktisune woman shuffled Sango about from room to room, hiding her. She didn't bring Sango to the platform where the other prostitutes were trapped, forced to be put on exhibition for the brothel's patrons. Eigo brought Sango small meals but it was hardly enough. Sango spent her day hiding in closets, waiting for nightfall.

She had spent two days at the brothel. This was the evening of the third. Eigo had promised her that at nightfall when the other kitsune closed the doors to their patrons for a few hours to count their earnings and sleep or eat if they wished, she would shepherd Sango outside and set her free.

At the appointed time, Eigo appeared, sliding open the door to Sango's latest small, dark hiding place. She had Sango's possessions bundled up in her arms. "Quickly, come with me."

Eigo led Sango through the winding halls and down a short flight of stairs. The building was purposefully maze-like, probably to keep its female slaves trapped inside. Eigo brought Sango to a small, dark entryway and thrust the bundle at her. "This is an extra robe in case it rains or the night is too cold. I brought your weapons too…"

Sango untangled the extra robe, exposing her small, lightweight rapier in its black sheath and the broad white stretch of curved, carved bone. She moved her hands over the smooth surface reticently, recalling the way its weight felt as she hefted it, tossing it at rampaging demons.

"You must go now," Eigo whispered and made a shooing gesture at Sango, ushering her toward the open door. Cool night air floated in on a sweet breeze.

Sango started for the door but stopped on the threshold, turning to stare at Eigo. "What about the girl? The girl with…" she frowned as memory-images warred inside her mind. "…the girl with golden eyes?"

Eigo's face fell. "I could not save her. Brother has taken an interest in her. She did not keep quiet as you did and Brother feels he must tame her."

Alarm shot through Sango. "I can't let that happen—I know her…" she shook her head, feeling a different rush of horror. "She's so young! You have to help her."

"I can't," Eigo said. "Brother will take her tonight, he's been watching her all day. The girl has no sense, no fear. She screamed and shouted all day like a senseless animal."

Eigo's words, oddly enough, made Sango want to smile perversely. That sounded right somehow, familiar. She pushed the desire away and reached out to Eigo as if the kitsune woman were her friend. "Please, you have to save her. I can't leave her here…"

"I can't," Eigo insisted again, shaking her head. "I wish I could. She is so strange, but innocent too. I have saved you because of your child. My brother and Sister are despicable for using you so. No creature should be subjected to this torture," Eigo growled.

"Please," Sango begged, "save my friend…"

Eigo reached for the door. "I will if I can—but you must _go!"_ the kitsune woman slid the door closed in Sango's face, setting the demon slayer free, alone, which was almost against her will.

Even without her full complement of memories, Sango knew that her sword and her hiraikotsu were not enough to take on the two kitsune women and their "Brother." If any of the patrons—most of them weren't human—remained Sango would face even more trouble.

She stared at the door, tempted to open it and rush back inside, an army quite literally of one. She knew somehow that she really _was_ an army of one, or had been in her youth. She had faced demons three times her size with little or no backup. She had stared down legendary monsters without fear. She had even faced them while she was _dying._

But now there was more than just herself to think about. She laid a hand over her abdomen, thinking hard. Somewhere she had a family to live for and a husband to return to. The girl inside the brothel was apart of that life, but Sango knew inherently that the girl wasn't her own daughter. She would recognize her own daughter, wouldn't she?

That was all it took, one question and Sango's doubt sank in. What if Akisame was her daughter and she returned home without her? At any rate leaving Akisame behind didn't sit well with her.

She reached a decision and turned away from the brothel, running toward the trees. After three days sitting or lying about for hours, Sango's body was tired and stiff, but the movement, and her rising adrenaline, propelled her forward. She could not save Akisame alone, but if she retrieved help from any nearby settlement she would stand a chance. Whoever and whatever Akisame was, Sango refused to let her suffer for long.

* * *

While Sango made her escape, running freely downhill through towering, dark pines and blue-green ferns, Akisame faced the end of her innocence, in all senses of the word. She swore fearlessly like any man, but she had never known imprisonment or true suffering. She had never before been stripped of all control by an enemy or someone that cared nothing about her.

When she had first sat in the caged platform and seen the prostitutes on the other side cowering away from her, Akisame hadn't registered _exactly_ what they were. She knew they were prisoners like herself, all of them being human or weak kitsune-hanyou, but when the men stepped forward and picked out a woman, Akisame gave it little thought. Partly it was because she had spent her time lying drugged on the floor, barely able to move, but it was also because Akisame knew very little about sex. When the women-slaves reappeared she smelled sex on them with her sharp nose, a scent she recognized but gave little meaning to other than disgust.

After Ratsuwan had appeared that morning and forced his kiss on her, giving Akisame her _first kiss,_ she had realized his intentions and connected all the dots. She had never heard of a brothel before, it wasn't something Inuyasha and Kagome were apt to tell their only daughter. So it was that the tough-swearing, wild daughter of a legend was naïve and cursed by her gender. But she was a quick enough learner to know what Ratsuwan planned to do to her.

For a time she dozed off, dreaming fitfully and feeling pain in her wrists and her ankles. She woke when Kiremono slid open the door to her tiny bedroom prison and entered. Akisame turned her head sleepily, blinking her eyes rapidly as she left her dreams behind. She had been tussling with someone in her dream, a boy and a man with white hair. She saw a flash of golden eyes, a fluff of a tawny colored tail, and she heard a boy's laughter ring through her mind, calling her name playfully.

_My family,_ she thought and then opened her eyes to see Kiremono knelt at her bedside. She had set up a small ceramic jar and was pushing bits of plant matter into it. The scent reached Akisame faintly and she recognized it with a jolt of horror. It was the herbs that Kiremono and Eigo burned to keep her sedated.

"No! No!" Akisame screeched, howling. She pulled against the ropes on her ankles and wrists. They cut into the crusty, dried blood on her wounds, opening them. The pain was sharp and biting but Akisame barely felt it in her desperation. "Don't you fuckin' do that! You bitch! You coward!"

A male voice came from the open door, purring. "Is she giving you trouble, Sister?"

Akisame recognized Ratsuwan at once. She bared her teeth, snarling instinctually. She tried to speak, to shout curses at him, but her lips and mouth refused to form coherent words.

Kiremono held a candle. She lifted it to a small stick of incense, lighting it, and then shoved it into the ceramic jar, using it as a wick to light the herbs. "Bind her well, Brother. She will not be easily tamed."

The first small whiff of the lit incense and the smoking herbs set Akisame's rage spiraling out of control. She tried to sit up, lunging and snapping at Kiremono like a dog. Growls and half-words issued out of her throat, as loud as she could make them.

And then one of the ropes on her foot snapped.

Akisame rolled as much as this new small freedom allowed. She came too close to Kiremono for her liking and the fox woman stumbled backwards from Akisame's bed. Her mouth fell open in alarm. "Brother—she's getting loose. She's too powerful; she's been nothing but trouble!"

"She is only a quarter inuyoukai," Ratsuwan scoffed, dismissing his sister's worry.

"That is the worst of it!" Kiremono cried out, still alarmed. She moved toward the door and her brother, leaving the growing cloud of incense and herb-smoke. "She is too powerful for being mostly human! She is the child of someone _important…"_

Akisame had curled her free leg up and was kicking futilely at the ceramic jar and the incense. Her movements were growing sluggish and weaker with each breath she drew. She had discarded any sense of modesty as well. In moving her leg up she had parted her robes at the seam, exposing her thighs completely. Her toes were long but stout with muscle. They stretched frantically toward the smoking jar, trying to knock it over. Another centimeter of stretching and she would touch it…Kiremono and Ratsuwan would have to douse the tiny flame to keep their brothel from burning…

Something in her shoulder snapped and Akisame bellowed with pain.

Ratsuwan grinned at the sound and pulled his sister up from the floor. "Let her breathe alone for a while. I will bind her while she sleeps and tame her myself."

"Please, Brother. I have a horrible feeling about this. What if she is a member of the inuyoukai clan? Umidori could give you no proper answers about her and she is too powerful. How many servants did she kill when you bought her? She injured one of our patrons and now they are afraid to touch her…"

"That is why I am taming her," Ratsuwan snapped. "Find me some chains. I will take no chances with her. And I will question her before I touch her. I have seen fear in her eyes, Sister. She will be tamed."

* * *

Next time:

_His fingers pressed hard on Kasai's jaw, right below her ears, where the actual bone of her mandible connected to her skull. There was a sharp pain and Kasai opened her mouth obediently. She breathed rapidly, her neck blazed with warning pain. Tears came into her eyes and Kasai blinked rapidly, glad that she still had control over her eyelids at least. _

_Master Dani lowered his fleshy mouth to Kasai's. Kasai stared at his closed, beady eyes beneath their heavy brow. The bristles on his forehead and over his eyes made her nose itch fiercely. His lips were startlingly cold._


	18. Akisame's Vengeance

A/N: Okay this first piece is NOT for those with weak stomachs. It's very gruesome at the end. I'm serious. Very, very SERIOUS. I meant it apparently when I rated this M. It's BAD. By the time you finish this chapter I think you all will agree that Kasai has the worst lot of the girls by leaps and bounds. So those with weak stomachs...I do apologize.

Disclaimer: I do not own them, though the kids are my original characters.

Last Chapter: Miroku and his sons set off after the girls, quarreling about how to do it. Miroku wants to ask Sesshomaru for help. Kagome woke up free from Master Dani and met a boy who thinks he wants to become a demon slayer named Nobe. Master Dani conducted another "worship" session and picked out sixteen disciples, one of them being Kasai and another Kenpo the monk. After forcing them to drink something that killed three of them, four of the remaining "disciples" revealed themselves as being "the Chosen." Kenpo and Kasai were two of them. Master Dani plans to infect them with an egg/embryo. Eigo turned Sango loose but Sango doesn't want to abandon Aki, she went to get help. The fox woman Kiremono drugged Aki but pleaded with Ratsuwan not to go through with his plan to "tame" Aki. Ratsuwan insisted that he would do it anyway.

* * *

**Akisame's Vengeance**

Master Dani pressed his lips to the monk's mouth. The monk was young, perhaps about ten years old and dressed in red robes, which marked him as a healthy, relatively new arrival to the shrine and temple. His eyes were wide open and staring as Master Dani's mouth met his. His little body snapped taut and his eyes closed tightly when a small, wet sound passed through the room. The boy-monk's throat muscles worked, moving up and then back down.

He had swallowed something.

As soon as Master Dani moved away from the boy, the little monk gasped in a weak, croacking voice and fell forward, clutching at his stomach and whimpering in pain.

Kasai was next in line.

Master Dani approached her and knelt before her, smiling with his lips opened, revealing the rows of sharp teeth with their little serrations. He reached out his hand and snatched up her jaw with one hand while his other pushed her hands down. The muscles in her arms were stiff, trying with everything they had to resist him. The glow from her palms dissipated, fading.

Master Dani's knuckles had the bristle-like hairs on them. They tickled Kasai's neck, prickling her skin. The master's voice came in her head, loud and commanding but with the tone of a gentle old man. _"Open your mouth."_

His fingers pressed hard on Kasai's jaw, right below her ears, where the actual bone of her mandible connected to her skull. There was a sharp pain and Kasai opened her mouth obediently. She breathed rapidly, her neck blazed with warning pain. Tears came into her eyes and Kasai blinked rapidly, glad that she still had control over her eyelids at least.

Master Dani lowered his fleshy mouth to Kasai's. Kasai stared at his closed, beady eyes beneath their heavy brow. The bristles on his forehead and over his eyes made her nose itch fiercely. His lips were startlingly _cold._

The wet sound came then, nearer and louder than when Kasai had heard it with the boy-monk. Something splashed into her mouth and Kasai's throat convulsed with an instant gag-reflex. A foul, salty taste assaulted her tongue. Her jaw quivered, her tongue pressed hard against her lower front teeth, unable to move for fear of knocking the sludge into her throat. _I must not swallow it! I must not!_

The foul, salty substance wriggled, moving.

Panic flared through Kasai's chest, a sharp jolt of fear ripped through her. _No! No!_

The thing flung itself into her throat and Kasai's esophagus chose quickly between inhaling and swallowing. She swallowed the sludge.

Master Dani withdrew from her and moved down the line with a smile.

Kasai worked her mouth, trying to spit the taste out, but her jaw was caught open, as if paralyzed. She had time to see the boy-monk still writhing on the ground, crying in pain, and then Kasai felt her stomach lurch and twist.

Agony pierced her gut and the taste of the sludge, the disgust and horror, vanished in a second, replaced only by pain. She fell forward, grabbing her stomach. Her hands shook, her toes curled up.

The thing was moving inside her, cutting into her stomach. Kasai gagged but the contents of her stomach refused to come up. She ran into a wall each time as her esophagus closed. Her entire body quaked, shaking violently with pain and the stress of the dry heaving. She clawed with her dull fingernails on the floor and cried out, taking some small comfort in hearing her own voice.

She managed to open her eyes and saw that Master Dani had moved his other disciples—those not Chosen—out of the room. Where they had gone, and how long ago exactly were far beyond Kasai's comprehension.

The boy-monk had managed to sit up on his hands and knees. He was dry heaving, coughing up spittle onto the floor while he clutched at his stomach with his free hand.

And then he vomited blood.

Kasai saw the thick, slimy trails of it splatter over the floor, clotting and sticking to the boy's hands, his chin and his arms. For a moment she was able to feel something aside from the pain in her stomach: a deep, yawning horror as she realized that the boy was a reflection of herself. His sickness would soon be hers.

* * *

At last the mountains came to an end. The road traveled in a circular route downhill as far as Inuyasha could see. In a little more than a day of travel Inuyasha, Koinu, and Shippo would be on the west coast.

Inuyasha had pushed himself hard. It had been a lot easier for him to travel when he'd been younger and fueled by desperation and wrath, a huge quest for vengeance. Now he traveled with desperation and fear. He had never liked fear much and rescue missions were bamboo under his fingernails torture.

There was nothing to do with it but reach their destination and find the girls. To do that faster and not kill Koinu with the physical stress of scaling steep mountainsides and hopping through the trees, Inuyasha had resorted to carting his son around on his back, a place that was usually reserved for Kagome. Koinu was unhappy with the decision, but Inuyasha refused to hear Koinu's complaints about it. Of course Koinu felt that being carried degraded him and was embarrassing, but he understood that slowing their search was worse.

As the hours had passed Koinu's recurrent fever barely surfaced in the afternoon as they made their descent from the mountains onto the plains before the Sea. He spent most of his time sleeping fitfully while Inuyasha carried him and Shippo scouted ahead of them. His ongoing, steady breathing warmed the back of Inuyasha's neck and shoulders in the chill of the morning and then became uncomfortably hot in the afternoon as the temperature rose.

Shippo reappeared after the sun had reached its zenith and the temperature and humidity peaked. The kit raced out of the foliage in his true form, a tawny-colored fox the size of a Great Dane. He stopped in the middle of the road ahead of Inuyasha and lifted his puffy tail. It was his personal signal to the hanyou that all was well.

Inuyasha grunted irritably and shouted toward Shippo, "Get up here and tell me what's ahead, runt."

Shippo lowered his head and closed his eyes. His body shimmered for a moment and then vanished completely, like a water mirage evaporating from the road. Inuyasha stopped, steeling himself for the moment when the kit would reappear. It didn't help him any.

Shippo popped up behind him, soundlessly. He stood just over waist height on Inuyasha in his bipedal form. "There's a village up ahead."

Inuyasha jumped, startled, and then growled viciously. "Cut that out, Shippo."

On his father's back, Koinu jolted awake, turning his head from side to side and flicking his ears forward and back. "What's going on?" his voice was blurred with sleep and his light fever.

"How far ahead is the village?" Inuyasha asked, ignoring Koinu's question.

"It's just around the corner. We can get there sooner if we cut through the woods but it will probably scare the villagers. Are we going to stay there?" Shippo cocked his head to one side, waiting for an answer.

Inuyasha shook his head. "No, but we need to see if they know anything."

"Let me down, Father," Koinu said. He jerked his legs, trying to break Inuyasha's firm grip from around the backs of his knees.

"You still have a fever," Inuyasha told him. "I don't want it getting any worse."

"I'm fine." Koinu dispensed with requests and struggled, pushing on his father's back. Inuyasha released him and Koinu backed away with a slight wobble before puffing his chest out, trying to regain his dignity. "I can keep up. I want to help talk to the villagers."

Inuyasha didn't hesitate in nodding affirmatively at his son. It was a good idea and all three of them knew it. Koinu was a thousand times friendlier than Inuyasha was when it came to strangers. "Let's get a move on then."

They cut through the forest with Shippo leading, leaping from tree to tree. Within twenty minutes the group left the forest behind abruptly and found themselves in the center of a garden just behind a small house.

"Uh oh," Shippo muttered, looking around.

"Great shortcut," Inuyasha grumbled. He took the lead, stepping up ahead of Shippo and hurrying out of the garden, passing between the wooden houses.

A man on his roof, kneeling and pounding on the shingles there, glanced up at them as they stepped out into the open from around his neighbor's house. The man's mouth fell open immediately with fear. He cupped his hands in front of his mouth and shouted out to the rest of the village, "Demons! Demons have come! Demons are here!"

Shouts of alarm rose up throughout the huts and the houses as men hid their children and livestock and armed themselves.

Inuyasha cursed and his ears flattened, preparing to fight if he was forced. "Yeah, great shortcut, Shippo."

Koinu moved forward and waved his arms at the man on the rooftop. "Excuse me, sir! Hello! My name is Koinu and my father just behind mere is Inuyasha—perhaps you've heard of him?"

The man on the roof gawked at him for a moment, disbelieving. Most demons in his experience didn't talk unless it was to taunt human prey. He took a step backward, intimidated by the talking demon below, and slipped. He fell flat and started to roll from the roof with a cry.

Shippo leapt into action. Before the man fell from the roof the kit teleported, popping up on the roof to block the man's fall. Though he appeared to be just a boy, Shippo easily hauled the man up to his feet, demonstrating his strength. The man on the rooftop stared, pale and wide eyed.

A few of the villagers appeared, wielding garden tools as weapons. A few hunters materialized with bows. They knelt on one knee and notched their arrows, pointing them at Inuyasha and Koinu.

Again Koinu waved his arms in a sort of cease-fire motion and spoke in a loud but calm, even voice. "Please, we mean you no harm…!"

The first arrow flew, aimed for Koinu's chest. He dodged it and turned, watching to make sure that Inuyasha did the same. The hanyou caught the arrow with one clawed hand and growled, snapping it in half. Gasps issued from the crowd and people backed away, further alarmed by the display of power.

"Please," Koinu continued, "We've only come to ask you if you've seen my mother and my sister…"

Inuyasha sighed angrily behind him. "It ain't working. You did your best but they ain't buying."

Koinu shook his head, his ears flattened with his defeat. "What's the matter with them?"

Another arrow flew at them and this time Koinu caught it and broke it. He dropped the pieces in the dirt at his feet, frowning.

Inuyasha wrapped his arm around Koinu's waist from behind and pulled him away, darting between the houses. The villagers rushed after them, shouting. As Inuyasha and Koinu sprang away, Shippo joined them, popping up ahead of them.

They returned to the road and traveled onward, shoulders sagging in defeat. Shippo walked with them for a few minutes, taking stock of the way Koinu and Inuyasha's expressions mirrored one another in sourness. "Next time I'll disguise myself as a human and talk to them. That always worked before."

Inuyasha grunted, "Back then we had Kagome, Sango and Miroku with us. People saw them and ignored me."

"I don't understand," Koinu murmured, lost in his own thoughts, "I spoke clearly and politely, just like Mom would've…"

"Koinu," Inuyasha started, sounding exasperated, "They were _idiots. _Humans are prey animals like a bunch of fuckin' deer. They get scared and don't hear one pretty little word you say."

His son didn't answer. His gaze was locked on the horizon where the sun was falling lower and lower. When the road twisted in a certain way all three of them were able to see the Sea of Japan, stretching on as far as the curve of the earth allowed. Something tensed inside Koinu, anxiety fluttered in his stomach. He was tired and his lungs were thick and aching but Koinu felt the urge to _hurry._

Inuyasha felt it too. "We gotta move. We ain't stopping tonight. Koinu—when you get tired I'll carry you." He turned his head and glared at his son, warning him. "And don't you pull any stunts, Pup. When you're tired you tell me, got that? I don't need you getting sick again."

Koinu nodded. "Right."

"We're not stopping tonight?" Shippo whined, groaning. "I'm tired…"

"You're a full-blooded demon, runt! Get over it!"

"But I'm still just a kid!"

"You're over twenty fucking years old. Quit babbling and let's get going."

* * *

Akisame lived in a haze. Her eyes were open but heavily lidded, moving slowly around the room. It was the only sign of her inner agitation. One leg lied askew over the side of the slat and flattened mattress that were supposed to qualify as a bed. Smoke and incense rose up from the ceramic jar at her bedside and each indrawn breath continued her lethargy and aided in her ongoing imprisonment. Her wrists and ankles were circled by red, chafed skin and open or scabbed over wounds that oozed blood. One arm ached where she her struggling had briefly snapped her shoulder out of its socket. Her perception of time jumped between impossibly slow and jarringly fast.

One moment she scanned the room and saw no danger. The next time she forced her eyes open and took a long breath of the poisoned air, Akisame saw Ratsuwan at her feet. In slow motion she watched as he pushed her free leg back onto the mattress. He stretched one clawed hand out to her and smiled with a gentleness and warmth that made Akisame's head spin with a trapped rage that her drugged body was unable to express.

"You truly are a fine little vixen. My sister tells me that your name is Akisame. A beautiful name." He stroked his claws through her hair and pulled one of the strands out. He felt it between his fingers, rubbing the strands there, compressing them where Akisame could see it.

"My sister also believes that you were born to the inuyoukai clan, some dog's little love-tryst with a human. I don't believe her because my sister has allowed her fear of your wildness to taint her view of you, little vixen." He leaned closer to Akisame and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply and sighing with satisfaction, as if Akisame were a delicious, exquisite, but red-hot dessert that Ratsuwan was waiting to cool before he risked eating it. "Yes, there it is. You are mostly human. The inuyoukai in you is distant, at least one generation removed. Tell me, who were your parents? Where did you come from?"

Akisame stared at him, trying to beam her blinding rage and animal hatred at him through her eyes alone. Ratsuwan drew close to her again but Akisame refused to flinch even when he touched his lips to hers and nibbled on the immobile surfaces. His green eyes stared into hers, so close to her that they merged into one, making the kitsune man a Cyclops. "You will tell me, little vixen," he rumbled.

Akisame moved her mouth, heavy as stone, and bit at him. Her teeth closed over his fleshy lower lip but she didn't have the strength to bite hard enough to break the skin. It worked anyway and Ratsuwan pulled away from her, alarmed. He rubbed his lip with two fingers and stared down at her. The alarm left his expression quickly, replaced with lust. "We will play then, little Aki. I will enjoy this."

Ratsuwan reached over to the ceramic jar and the incense. There was a small lid next to the jar and Ratsuwan picked it up, laying it over the mouth of the jar. The smoke would extinguish itself there, posing no further threat to either Ratsuwan or to Akisame. It was only a matter of time before Akisame would recover her strength.

The girl stared at the covered jar with hungry, desperate eyes. She moved her fingers experimentally and flexed the muscles in her free leg.

Ratsuwan called to the door. One of the kitsune women entered. In her arms there were rusted iron chains, rattling with an ungodly noise. Akisame winced at the sound, closing her eyes. The sound transmitted through her keen ears as pain, rattling through her brain.

Time skipped ahead for her then as her brain fizzled in and out, struggling to rid itself of the sedating effect of the smoke. Ratsuwan was at her feet, cutting the rope and then the rattle of the chain came as he wound it about her ankles. The next time she opened her eyes Ratsuwan was smiling down at her and Akisame realized with a jolt that her hands had been freed from the rope only to be bound in front of her with the rusting chains. The iron weighed her wrists down where her hands laid over her empty stomach, in the inverted V of her ribs.

Akisame opened and closed her mouth, biting down, clenching her jaw. Her bite strength had mostly returned. Her fingers moved slowly but obediently, flexing. When she lifted her head, Akisame felt the first rush of fear pass over her, sweeping over her skin in flashes of hot and cold. While she had dozed off under the influence of the smoking herbs, Ratsuwan had stripped off her outer orange robe. The inner one was a glaring red like a fiery sunset.

(A/N: I guess in Japan the color of the kimono can identify a prostitute. Bright, gaudy colors say, 'I am a hooker,' in Japanese, at least in kimono. I thought that was interesting.)

"Have you recalled how to use your tongue, little vixen?" Ratsuwan asked, taunting her in a purring, singsong voice.

"Go to _hell,"_ she replied in a tired but deep voice. Speaking took effort but the herbal-smoke sedatives had mostly worn off.

"In that case," Ratsuwan moved his clawed hand to her waist and gave a tug, pulling on the strip of fabric—banana yellow in color—that secured the inner robe. It was not an obi, it was far too thin and it tied in the front, not the back. Of course since Kiremono and Eigo had dressed her after her first bath, Akisame had been wearing bizarre clothing with obis that tied in the front as well.

Akisame stretched out her bound hands, rattling the chain around her wrists. She clawed at Ratsuwan's groping hands and the kitsune man let go, pulling his hand back in momentary alarm. Then he smiled. "Ah, you have recovered more quickly than I had anticipated."

Growling, Akisame lunged for him with her bound hands, slashing. Ratsuwan caught her hands and held onto the chain, tugging hard. The cold of the rusted iron dug into Akisame's wounds, reopening them. Akisame ignored the pain and twisted her legs around, smacking Ratsuwan in the back as hard as she could. The kitsune man gave a harsh grunting sound as Akisame's knees impacted him, knocking the air out of his lungs for a moment. His grip on her hands, however, was unfaltering.

"Let go!" Akisame snarled. She tugged, pulling on her bound hands.

Ratsuwan smacked her head, stunning Akisame for a moment as her skull rang with the force of the blow. "Give me answers, little Aki. By resisting me you only make it harder on yourself." Ratsuwan forced one of her eyes open and grinned at her, showing his fangs. "Tell me where you come from…"

"The dog demon clan," Akisame blurted. "And they're going to come after you and use your guts as ropes. So you'd better get your paws off me you fucking pathetic excuse for a youkai!"

"Now you are lying to me," Ratsuwan shook his head at her. "I don't appreciate a bitch that lies to her master." Ratsuwan pounced on her, pressing his body weight to her legs to keep them still while he held her bound hands at the wrist with one hand. With the other he forced her cheek to the mattress, exposing her neck and the side of her head. The kitsune man bit her neck, purposefully drawing blood.

Akisame squirmed beneath him, fighting. She gnashed her teeth but did not whimper or whine. Ratsuwan's tongue and teeth on her delicate throat made her stomach convulse with repulsion and loathing. Her fingers worked in the air, pawing at something, desperate to slash Ratsuwan's throat.

With a taste of her blood, Ratsuwan felt a thrill of excitement pass through him, as well as some small bit of fear. Akisame's blood didn't whisper of power—it challenged him with it. Although Akisame was three-quarters human, her inuyoukai blood was stubbornly powerful. Her inuyoukai ancestors hadn't been petty, lowborn scum.

He moved his head slightly, tasting her throat down to her collarbone. Her scent was engaging, canine and human, an excellent combination as far as Ratsuwan was concerned. His breathing came more quickly as his arousal increased.

His ear, pointed neatly, came too close to Akisame's gritted teeth and her clenched jaw. Akisame jerked her head in his hold, gaining just enough movement that she was able to bite onto Ratsuwan's ear. Her front teeth and her fangs clamped down viciously and slid easily through Ratsuwan's flesh.

The kitsune withdrew on instinct, screaming in pain. His quick movement left the upper half—the sharp point of his ear—in Akisame's mouth. As he stifled his cries and glared down at her while he held his bleeding ear, Akisame spat the sliver of severed flesh at him and bared her teeth in a sadistic grin. "Stupid fox!" she jeered and spat again, this time just his blood.

Ratsuwan growled and lost his patience. The mixture of lust, pain, and rage, drove him past all caution. Grabbing Akisame's head with his bloodied fingers, he hit her and pounded her head onto the mattress. Akisame clawed at him but Ratsuwan held her hands with one of his own. Her muscles bucked beneath him, her feet and knees pounded against his back where he sat on her, pinning her down, but Ratsuwan didn't move.

His blood coated her face in streaks left by his fingers. Akisame's eyes fluttered, fighting to stay awake. Her breathing came in quick, uneven jerks. With her mind clouded, Akisame's struggling had stilled. Ratsuwan pulled feverishly on the band keeping her robe closed. He pulled her robes open, revealing her young, small breasts and the narrowness of her waist and hips. He raked his claws over her sides, drawing blood.

"You think you have scarred me, little bitch, but my ear will re-grow by tomorrow. I will leave you with scars that tell everyone that you have been beaten and tamed for the rest of your pathetic life…"

Akisame rolled her head from side to side, trying to see him. Her eyesight was blurry, her head felt as if it were splitting in two. Her wrists and her ankles ached and now the air touched the scrapes on her sides, making them sting. She closed her eyes, trying for a moment to turn inward. She could lie still and escape Ratsuwan in her brain, but physically she would be trapped, forced to waken and uncover the damage he had done to her body as well as the scars he would leave on her soul. She reached deep inside her mind, searching for something.

For a moment she saw an open sky and smelled pollen. She saw dirt and rocks on the road. She saw a man with white hair and dog ears—no, two of them, father and son. Suddenly she _knew_ them. Her father Inuyasha, her brother Koinu. Her thoughts skipped about and she saw her mother in the garb of a priestess—and then she found herself staring down at a set of clawed hands, watching the purple sparks that leapt between her fingers…

Ratsuwan was grunting, pulling on his own clothes. The ties securing his hakama were too tight, frustrating and slowing him. As Akisame's eyes popped open she registered the lump in his pants and a fresh, wild spurt of fear washed over her. She followed instinct that she hadn't known she possessed and reached out, grabbing Ratsuwan's sleeve with her bound hands.

The fox had no time to realize what had happened to him. The moment he saw Akisame's hands on his sleeve and thought nothing of it, the battle was already over. Purple light gushed from Akisame's hands and pierced Ratsuwan, rushing swiftly over his whole body. The kitsune let out one short, sharp scream and then fell away. He writhed on the floor as the power passed through him, hitting his arm and then his head. It took his voice away, disintegrating his vocal cords, dismantling every part of him. His body withered, drying on contact with the power, and then it vanished, crumbling and evaporating into the air.

Akisame forgot her headache and the weakness in her legs and arms. The moment Ratsuwan had vanished, leaving only powder and bits of bloodstained clothing; she sprang from the bed and lurched unsteadily toward the door. She crashed through it, breaking the wood and the paper with her bound hands. Outside of her former prison cell and bed chambers, Akisame found herself staring into the room across the hall and meeting Kiremono's wide green gaze.

Breathing hard, Akisame bared her teeth and lifted her chained hands. Purple energy glowed faintly on her palms though Akisame hadn't thought to call on it and didn't even know how to. "That's it, Kiremono," she sneered, "just stay right there. That'll make it easy for me to kill you."

Kiremono's face changed, warping with a mixture of rage and pain. "You killed Brother, didn't you?" The fox woman got to her feet slowly. Her eyes narrowed. "I knew you would."

"Good, then you know you're next!"

"Please!" Kiremono's shout made Akisame paused, hands upraised and bound, the iron chain swinging and clinking through the air. She cocked her head to one side, listening in spite of herself as Kiremono begged. "I did only what Brother instructed of me. I ask that you would spare me..."

The fox's behavior struck an odd cord in Akisame. She wanted to slash Kiremono's face off, to cleave her flesh from her bones, but something inside her paused. The other half of her raged onward, recalling how Kiremono had helped Ratsuwan with the iron chains that currently bound her feet and hands, the way that Kiremono had taunted her and drugged her and bathed her against her will. Akisame lifted her hands up higher, out of a threatening position and shouted at the fox woman. "How about you get me out of these chains and let all the others go too and maybe then I'll think about letting you live."

Kiremono bowed to her. "Yes, of course."

The fox woman turned away from Akisame and pulled open a storage drawer from the wall behind her. She pulled out a key, large and heavy with a surprising pick-like structure at the end. As she started her approach toward Akisame, with her head lowered and her eyes averted meekly, Akisame realized with a jolt that _there was no lock._ The chains were tied around her wrists and ankles.

Kiremono screamed and lunged at her, lifting the key high. The fox woman was a pureblooded demon and she moved with the speed of one, overwhelming Akisame. The pick was dull, rusty like the chain. Akisame blocked Kiremono's first blow with her bound hands, but Kiremono pivoted faster than Akisame's eye could follow. One moment she was slashing from the right, the next from the left. In the tight quarters of the hallway, Akisame had little room to maneuver.

She flinched as Kiremono jabbed and slashed at her side. The fabric of her under robe screeched as it was torn apart, but Akisame felt no pain herself. She was able to use the heaviness of her bound hands as a weapon and smacked Kiremono in the shoulder with her wrists and the chain—though she'd been aiming for her head. The impact knocked Kiremono against the wall.

The fox woman bared her teeth at Akisame. "You killed my brother! You little bitch!" Tears, startlingly bright, glittered in her green eyes.

"That bastard was fucking _evil!"_ Akisame shouted. "And _you're not any better!"_

Kiremono let out a raw, howling noise and pushed against Akisame. With her bound feet Akisame lost her balance and tumbled backward easily. Her head thumped on the floor and she cried out, startled by the burst of pain that passed through her skull. Kiremono's clawed hand shot out, the long fingers snaking around her neck and constricting. And then, just a suddenly, Kiremono released her and scuttled away from her. She held her hands up to her face, shaking. Her palms and fingers smoked, the flesh was dimpled and reddened. "My hands?" she gasped. "What is this?"

"It's the end of you and this sick place!" Akisame lunged at Kiremono. The chains rattled. Kiremono's eyes snapped open wide and unbelieving as Akisame's hands grabbed at her thigh. One touch sent the fox woman falling backward, crying out as her body fizzled and burned around her.

Akisame looked away as Kiremono's body dissolved and her last agonized screams died away. She sighed, "I woulda let you live too, you stupid fox, even though you didn't deserve it."

With shaking hands, Akisame started to pull on the chains around her feet, gradually untying them. Just as she'd finished with her feet and was examining the wounds around her ankles, footsteps thumped over the flooring. When Akisame looked toward the distant, darkly lit end of the hall she saw Eigo. The last of the fox women stood stiff and stunned with both hands covering her mouth.

Akisame got to her feet and faced the last fox, lifting her chained hands. "Yeah, I killed them. What are you going to do about it?" she demanded.

Eigo covered her face with both hands; her breath came in shaky inhalations. "I never liked Brother, but Sister didn't deserve this…"

"The hell she didn't," Akisame spat, defending her actions. "She got what was coming to her. Now tell me, do I have to kill you too to get out of here? And where are the others? Where is the slayer woman and the other slaves you keep here for your fuckin' patrons…?"

"I was the least of us," Eigo said, looking over the tops of her fingers. "My mother was a prostitute; their mother was Father's wife. I always thought being a part of the brothel gave me power and status with Brother and Sister while it made me hate myself inside…"

"What are you talking about?" Akisame demanded, frowning in confusion. "Answer my question already! Where are the others? I'm taking them with me…"

Eigo's green gaze, the same color as Ratsuwan and Kiremono's had been, was unfocused, staring off into the screened walls. "I set the slayer free. The other women are throughout this place, locked in the rooms…"

"Then stay out of my way," Akisame grumbled. She moved past what was left of Kiremono's body. Her ears were tuned to the sounds behind her anticipating Eigo's attack. She rounded the corner and kicked at the first door there, splintering the wood and tearing the paper apart.

A woman screamed inside and cowered on a dirty wooden pallet. "Demon! Please spare me!"

Akisame sneered. "I'm setting you free stupid."

She stepped back into the hallway and immediately tensed as she saw Eigo round the corner, moving shakily and with a bizarre, seren slowness. Akisame dropped into a crouched position, ready to defend herself. She lifted her bound hands as if they were weapons. "Don't come any closer!"

Eigo stopped and stared at her, gaping. "I haven't come to stop you—I'm here to help. I—I'm free now. You killed Brother and Sister, there's nothing to hold me here any longer." She swallowed thickly, revealing the emotion she was grappling with inwardly.

The human woman from the room that Akisame had broken into emerged. She was shaking, whimpering quietly. When she spotted Eigo the woman took off running for all she was worth.

"If you're serious," Akisame growled at the fox woman, "Then guide these women out of here after I set them free. Will you do it?"

Eigo nodded slowly. "Yes, I will."

Using her nose and her keen ears, Akisame toured through the brothel's winding hallways, breaking violently into the small, secret rooms. Every one of the women that she freed reacted with fear, cowering and trying to hide from her. Only when Akisame left or chased them out like a dog herding sheep did the women make their escape. They smelled of fear and despair and sickness. Some of the women that escaped were pregnant with kitsune-hanyou and Akisame watched these women flee with a dark, unhappy expression, wondering what would become of the babies that were born to them. Unwanted but innocent, the humans would probably kill their mothers out of superstition or they would leave the babies out as food for the animals or to succumb to the chill of the night.

There was nothing that Akisame could do about it, but she wondered about her memories. The white-haired brother and father, as well as her priestess mother. Their names and parts of their identities were coming back to her, gradually, but Akisame realized how unusual she and her family were. It was no wonder that Ratsuwan had thought of her as such a rare find. Three-quarters inuyoukai, a baby that should've been left out to die by her human mother—but Akisame's parents had not joined as the human women inside the brothel had with their kitsune patrons.

At last Akisame reached the room where the fox men had prowled around the caged platform where the prostitutes waited like goods on display. She spotted the incense burners that had been used to drug her, the padlock on the door that had secured it shut against Akisame's struggles. She saw the blood on the floor from where she had attacked a curious patron…

Growling, baring her teeth at the ghost-like memories, Akisame moved to one of the smoking braziers that lit the cage and slashed at it. The brazier fell over and the oil that fed the small flame spilled over the floor of the cage, like rain or dewdrops. The little flame moved swiftly and grew, gobbling up the liquid. Smoke bloomed and rose, spreading up over the floor and into the air.

Akisame backed slowly away from the flames, feeling the heat on her cheeks as her eyes stared straight through the orange-gold light. _That cage will never hold another woman against her will._

Grinning without any mirth, Akisame turned away and hurried for the door, setting off on her own—and though she didn't know it, like her first kiss, she was unprotected and fending completely for herself for the very first time.

* * *

Walking with a woman dressed as a priestess turned out to be a real treat. Nobe learned that his accidental traveling companion was an experienced fighter and healer and she was able to sense demons before they attacked. Villagers bowed to her when they walked through, some of them tried to stop her and ask for her blessing or her help. Kagome tried to do as they asked, but always apologized; explaining that she had never been trained properly as a child or as a maiden, but that hardly mattered to the people that called for her help.

It became easy for Kagome to see how Miroku had made a living searching for Naraku alone. Many of the villages were desperate with fear of the supernatural. A flooding rain they viewed as unnatural, something that was brought on them as punishment from a god or a demon. Sometimes this really was the case, other times Kagome recognized only nature as the villain. It was easier, and it always had been, for the helpless villagers to blame a deity or a demon rather than nature because they could appease the deity or demon or have it killed. Nature, on the other hand, was a cruel mistress and nothing they could do would appease her.

After a day and a half of travel, Kagome and Nobe had climbed out of the flat plains around Niigata and were traveling through steadily steeper and rockier terrain. Until Kagome had come along, Nobe's rations of rice and dried fish had been enough to keep the boy going, but with another mouth to feed things grew difficult. Kagome was able to pick out edible plants and herbs and when they came across a stream she burrowed Nobe's small knife to fashion a spear for hunting fish.

Actually spearing one of the fish, however, was a difficult feat. She stood in the middle of the stream on a rock, staring down at the small fish darting about below her in the current. When she struck at a large one, Kagome found that her aim was off. Her eyes were unable to grasp the way that the water's surface bent the light, making the fish seem nearer or farther away than they really were.

_How did Inuyasha always do this?_

Although her catches weren't as impressive as Inuyasha's had been, Nobe was surprised by Kagome's skill and ability. It was clear to him, even after only knowing her a few days, that she could've traveled alone easily, but he was honored to have her with him.

On the afternoon of their third day, as the mountains rose around them like the heads of giants marching onward to the horizon and beyond, a group of men appeared distantly, at the top of rise in the road. Nobe, who used his young, sharp eyes as lookout, shouted and pointed toward the other group. A group of men—possibly bandits—wasn't something that Nobe and Kagome wanted to encounter in their journey, unless it was…

"Nobe," she called, squinting into the distance as they continued walking, "are any of them wearing red? Is there one with unusual long white hair?"

The other group was beginning to descend the far-off mountainside trail, disappearing from view. Kagome longed for a set of binoculars. At her side, Nobe shook his head. "No, I don't think so, but they are so far away I can't really tell. We'll probably run into them in an hour or two. They're heading west, we're going east…"

_If it was Inuyasha, _Kagome realized,_ he'd probably have smelled me from there and already come running._ She kept her fingers crossed and waited hopefully, but as each minute passed, adding up gradually, she felt defeat settle into her soul.

And then, suddenly, as they rounded a corner, following the road as it skirted a steep, rocky mountain, Nobe and Kagome saw the group of men closer, more clearly.

"They are traveling with a boy," Nobe observed of them aloud.

Kagome had already picked out a set of purple and black robes. She grinned and laughed, letting the relief soar up inside her like a hawk riding the wind. "It's Miroku…"

"Who?" Nobe asked, blinking.

Kagome didn't answer him; she had already picked up her speed, stumbling slightly in her sandals. She shouted out to the group.

They halted for a moment, taken by surprise. Their stances became battle-ready positions as Miroku and his sons formed a V-shape and reached for their weapons. When Kagome called Miroku's name, however, the monk made a quick gesture and the weapons were put away and released. The family surged forward to meet her with wide grins, calling her name in return with relief.

Nobe watched the reunion with a blank gape, wondering all over again who he was traveling with.

* * *

A/N: next time:

_As Kasai stirred the contents of the broth swirled, revealing some of the chunkier portions of the stuff. Kasai saw dark bits of meat and cartilage—and then her chopsticks hit on something hard that had no give in it whatsoever. It was a tiny bone. Kasai leaned forward and worked by feel with the chopsticks, clutching the little bone between them. Coated in the dark broth it was at first indistinguishable, but as Kasai shook it off and brought it closer to her face to examine, her mouth fell open with shock. _

_It was a tooth. A rounded, bumpy molar. A human molar._


	19. Sango Remembers

A/N: I made a gaff. In an earlier chapter I mention that IY, Koinu, and Shippo are carrying Sango, Kagome, and Kasai's weapons. But here comes my stupid gaff I have Eigo give Sango her weapons when she leaves the brothel. It's a stupid gaff and I could fix it by editing but for now I'm just going to say "My bad," and go on.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Not at all.

Last Chapter: Really gruesome scene with Kasai as Master Dani took her and Kenpo and two others as his big time "Chosen," by giving them a nasty sloppy kiss that made everyone very sick. Koinu, IY, and Shippo tried to get information from a bunch of villagers but they were driven off and left with a sense of urgency. Akisame faced Ratsuwan and escaped by purifying him, though she gave no thought as to how. She then killed Kiremono as well and helped the other prostitutes escape. She left Eigo alive but set the brothel on fire. Kagome and Nobe traveled inland and ran into Miroku and his sons.

* * *

**Sango Remembers**

Kasai woke gently, weakly. Her body ached and stung with pain. Her lungs hurt when she breathed. Her diaphragm was the source. It was sore almost to the point of burning from dry heaving and vomiting. The memory of her illness was a thick, painful blur and Kasai pushed the thoughts away.

She sat up, slowly. Her head spun dizzily as she looked around. She was lying on a futon mattress on a small platform and covered by a blanket made of white furs. At her feet there was another futon on the platform where another priestess slept. Her young face was creased with discomfort. Her mouth was encircled with blood.

Kasai touched her own mouth, feeling the tightness there as she realized that her mouth was coated with dried blood as well. She pawed at it, scratching. Little brown-red flakes fell into her hands. Her breathing rate increased with fear and panic, nausea rippled through her belly all over again. Closing her eyes, Kasai stifled it, trying instead to find the voice of her father and of her mother, their calmness as they discussed demons and how to eradicate them and survive in their midst.

Someone moaned, drawing Kasai back out of her inner mind. She saw that against the other wall there was another long platform where two more futons with white furs were sitting. Underneath these blankets were two monks dressed in red, the color of the healthy. One of them was the small boy that Kasai had seen swallow Master Dani's "gift" first. The other was Kenpo. The first boy was stirring; one hand clutched his stomach, the other at his throat.

The boy glanced up at her and then squeezed his eyes tightly shut. Little tears rolled down his cheeks. "What happened? Where are we?"

The room they were in was well furnished and decorated, as if it were a fancy or expensive guest room. It wasn't large but the flooring was fresh smelling and plush when Kasai touched her feet to it. The mattresses and blankets were far better than what Kasai had been sleeping on before Master Dani had picked her out as one of his "Chosen."

She shook her head. "I don't know."

The boy sobbed, wiping shamefully at the tears on his face. "I thought I was going to die!"

Kasai felt his fear mirrored in her own heart, a dark, yawning mouth of terror. She pushed it away, burying it with the experience that came from years of facing youkai that planned to kill or devour her. "Stop crying, don't panic. We have to be strong if we're going to get out of here. Do you understand? What's your name?"

"My name is Osore," the boy murmured, sniffling.

"I'm Kasai. Before I came here I was a demon slayer. My whole family were demon slayers. We're going to get out of here, Osore."

Osore stared at her with wide, terrified brown eyes. "You were a demon slayer? Do you know what he did to us? What does it mean to be Chosen by Master Dani?"

Kasai shook her head. "I've never seen a parasite like Master Dani before…" She hesitated, swallowing the fresh rush of nausea in her stomach at the fact that she _did _know what Master Dani had done to them. _The wriggling creature in my mouth, now in my stomach…_Master Dani had impregnated them with his offspring. It was true; however, that she didn't know what would happen to them next, though she could guess that it wouldn't be good.

A door clattered open beside Kenpo and Osore's beds and a priestess in white and red entered carrying a tray. Kasai recognized the priestess as one of the Chosen and as one that she'd known before. As the priestess set the tray on the floor between the platforms and the futons on them, Kasai called out to her. "Mirimi! What's going on? Did Master Dani kiss you too…?"

Mirimi was crying when she looked up at Kasai. "No, he didn't do that to us."

"What happened while we were sick?" Kasai demanded.

The small priestess looked away and covered her eyes with one hand. "Please, just eat. It is what Master Dani commands."

For the first time, Kasai looked down at the bowls on the tray. There were four of them, a black-red meaty stew that made Kasai think of poison rather than food. Osore shivered on his futon, whimpering. He looked a little green.

"Mirimi, please just tell me how long we were asleep?" Kasai asked.

"It's been a little over a day." Mirimi made a choking sound and her shoulders shook, moving up and down. "Master Dani has kept us inside this house with him all this time, we sleep in cages. He takes us to worship with him and the others think we're pampered. I can see the hate in their eyes, but they don't know how lucky they are!"

"Why?" Kasai asked, whispering the question.

Mirimi's tears fell onto the floor and splattered the tray. "Master Dani says you four must eat…"

Kasai paused as she realized that Mirimi was staring at the bowls. Her small, rounded nostrils flared and her eyes were wide with horror. "What exactly is this food we're supposed to eat?" Kasai asked.

Kenpo and the last Chosen priestess stirred with the continued noise and groggily sat up, watching and listening with a strained weariness.

Mirimi didn't answer them. Shaking and stiff-legged, Mirimi got to her feet and left the room without another word.

Kasai bit her lip and hopped off the platform where her futon was. She knelt at the tray that Mirimi had left and picked up a set of chopsticks and stirred at the black-red broth. It might've been miso soup or some other good concoction, but considering that its source was Master Dani, Kasai had her doubts. The smell rising from the bowls was sharp and metallic…

As Kasai stirred the contents of the broth swirled, revealing some of the chunkier portions of the stuff. Kasai saw dark bits of meat and cartilage—and then her chopsticks hit on something hard that had no give in it whatsoever. It was a tiny bone. Kasai leaned forward and worked by feel with the chopsticks, clutching the little bone between them. Coated in the dark broth it was at first indistinguishable, but as Kasai shook it off and brought it closer to her face to examine, her mouth fell open with shock.

It was a _tooth._ A rounded, bumpy molar. _A human molar._

Kasai dropped the chopsticks and the tooth back into the bowl and backed away, breathing hard. The other Chosen around her were silent and disturbed. Only Kenpo found the courage to speak and give voice to what they were all thinking.

"Those soups were made from the three that died after drinking the broth. Master Dani is trying to make us into cannibals."

* * *

After two hours of walking downhill, Sango heard the ocean and smelled the salt. She also saw the light of campfires in the distance.

It was the dead of night, dark and deep. As Sango reached the rocky beach, memories assaulted her. A white shape streaking through the black waves, blackish blood spurting onto the light brown sand. She stared at the sea for a time and then closed her eyes. She saw the inuyoukai girl, Akisame in those memories. Names and faces smacked into her, like kamikaze bugs trying to suck away her blood. Inuyasha, Koinu, Kagome, Akisame and Shippo. The children whose faces she recalled swarmed up before her in the order of their births: Kohimu, Tisoki, Kasai, Masuyo, Riki and Koudo. Her husband's face came to her as well: his handsome smile, the startling violet eyes that had captivated her from the moment she'd met him…

The assignment that had sent her, in a roundabout way, to the kitsune brothel returned to her too. The hanyou whale Iruka that had been capturing and eating humans from the eastern shores of Japan. She recalled the world that Iruka had plunged her into: silence pierced only by a continuous ringing in her ears. She remembered the soundless lips of her sons, her daughter, Kagome and her children. She had regained her hearing since then, but while she had been deaf she had seen Hakugei, Iruka's father. It had been Hakugei that had organized her abduction.

Was it only she and Akisame that had been sent away, punished? Yet Sango's memories brought forth an image of Kagome at her side, as deaf as she was, and Kasai drawing her small sword. A kitsune brothel would be no place for Kasai and Kagome. Their spiritual powers would be impossible for the kitsune to manage. Sango knew with a sudden ferocity that Kasai and Kagome were elsewhere being punished.

How had she forgotten? How _could _she forget all of it, all of her _life_ and her _family?_

She remembered Hakugei's beady eyes, much like Iruka's, staring into her own. His words returned to her: _You females killed my daughter. I will make you suffer as she did._

It must've been Hakugei that had made Sango and Akisame lose their memories. The whale demon had the power to deafen them with sound and touch their minds, controlling them. Was it too far off to imagine that he had manipulated their minds as well? Iruka had probably suffered alone as most hanyou did. Was that why Hakugei had erased their memories and split them apart? Without knowing who they were and where they had come from, they would be alone as Iruka had been as a hanyou…

Sango dismissed her thoughts and hurried onward, following the scent of the campfires.

The village was substantial with huts and houses and large storage buildings elevated off the ground to discourage mice from getting into the grain as well as to protect from flooding from the sea. In the darkness Sango saw a few villagers, old men and women that were keeping watch around a large circular campfire. Sango called to them and soon found herself under their scrutiny.

"You have an accent." "What are you wearing? Is that armor?" "Where did you come from, my lady?"

Sango told her story quickly and, when her audience saw her shaking hands they offered her food and rest. Sango accepted the food but insisted on haste.

As it turned out the village was familiar with the kitsune brothel. Many of their daughters had vanished falling prey to it. They were more than ready to storm the place and reclaim their lost daughters, but fear of the kitsune had held them back. Some men had ventured up to the brothel over the years and returned dying of poisons or from missing limbs or simply mumbling and insane. The old men and women told her of this in the dead quiet of the night as the orange fire crackled.

"We are shamed by our fear, but too many good men have been lost trying to take back their daughters. It is only girls after all," one of the old man sniffed, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

"You escaped from the demon brothel?" the youngest woman there, half a dozen years older than Sango stared at her with hope shining in her eyes. "My daughter was taken almost ten years ago…how did you escape? Did you see my daughter? She looked just like me…"

Sango sighed and shook her head. "I was so confused most of the time; I only took notice of the girl that I know. I escaped with the help of one of the fox women there, but my friend is still there and she's in danger, just like your daughters are. I want to go back with your help and get them out."

Immediately the men started to scoff at Sango and dismiss her suggestion, repeating their earlier stories about men that had returned injured, insane, or dying. "The kitsune magic is too strong there. The only reason you were able to escape was because of the fox that helped you…" the old man that was speaking stopped then and narrowed his eyes at Sango suspiciously. "Why would a fox demon help _you?"_

The others all turned suspicious, untrusting eyes on Sango then, forgetting her amazing appearance in favor of interrogating her as if she might be a demon herself.

Sango had strapped her belongings, the things that Eigo had given her on her escape, onto her back. She released them and opened the fabric-bound bundle to show the villagers. "I'm a demon slayer. If you trust your men to me I promise you that we will be successful where the others failed. I am familiar with kitsune magic and with many kinds of demons. My name is Sango."

The old men stared silently at Sango's sword. When one of the men reached for a little round ceramic object amidst Sango's things, the demon slayer blocked his hand. "That is a very potent poison, sir. I would advise you not to touch it."

"Why would the fox woman set you free?" the woman whose daughter was still in the brothel demanded. "If what you say is true and you are a demon slayer, why would she set you free knowing you could turn around and attack her?"

Sango was silent for a moment, making up her mind about revealing her vulnerability to them. Finally she let out a long, slow breath and whispered, "She pitied me because I'm pregnant."

The villagers sat back, their mouths hanging open with surprise. Sango didn't wait for them to start demanded for evidence of her latest news. She pressed onward, asking, "Will you join me?"

The old men glanced toward the woman whose daughter was in the brothel. Slowly they looked back to Sango and nodded. "In the morning," one of the old men declared.

Sango shook her head. "Please," she begged. "Sir, could you awaken some of the men now? My friend is in danger…"

"Nighttime is not a place for humankind," the old man muttered. "You may have no fear of it, slayer, but you would do well to accept your friend's fate. We will help you, but only in due time."

Sango stared down at her weapons, her clothes, and the poisons. Akisame's face appeared before her with its golden eyes, burning as if on fire from within. She knew Inuyasha's eyes would glow with a similar fire when he found his daughter again and knew that she had been raped. Sango bowed her head and fought the rush of sympathy. She wondered where her sons were and where her daughter was. She imagined Kasai in Akisame's place, held down and violated by a kitsune and covered her face with her hands in shame. _I failed…_

Something hard awakened inside Sango and she sat up straight again, breathing deeply. The villagers were talking amongst themselves, already planning. Sango asked them for some food and ate it quickly. As she did the woman watched her for a time before observing, "You won't wait, will you?"

"I can't," Sango replied. She shoved more of the rice gruel and fish-flavored paste into her mouth, swallowing quickly. She tied her sword around her waist. Above her in the sky the moon peeked out of a narrow ring of clouds, coloring the strands of cloud silver like spider webs. _I have faced Naraku while at death's door and in the pits of despair. I won't leave Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter._

"What of your child?" the old woman asked. "What if you are recaptured by the foxes in the brothel?" The woman abruptly moved to one side of the fire, bowing before Sango. "Don't leave slayer. Without you the men may abandon the idea of freeing the women in the fix brothel. You must stay with us to give them the courage they need to face the demons…"

Sango shook her head, biting her lip. "I can't, I'm sorry." She turned and hurried away, already dressed in her black bodysuit and pink armor, ready for a fight.

The journey that had taken her nearly two hours of unsteady walking before now lasted half as long. Sango followed her own trail easily, marking where she had bent branches or scratched tree trunks with her sword. Ascending the mountain and leaving the sea behind tired Sango, leaving her panting. She gripped her abdomen, praying silently that the child in her womb wouldn't be shaken loose.

She was only a few miles away when she smelled smoke and saw orange light flickering in the distance. Women streamed down the mountainside. Some moved quickly and loudly, crying. Others were wraiths, slow and silent, dead inside. Sango caught the nearest woman that was running and screaming and held her by the collar of her kimono.

"What's going on up there? What happened?" she demanded.

"Let go of me!" the girl slapped Sango in the face leaving streaks of dirt and moisture.

Sango released the girl and paused for a moment to watch her scurry down the mountainside, screaming and then falling, catching herself so that her hands landed in wet soil and dew. Sango wiped momentarily at her own face and hurried on, following the light and the scent of smoke now.

She crested the mountainside and stared through the pine trees at the blaze where the brothel had once stood. It had picked up and spread to the trees around the brothel. Shadows moved before the flames as some of the women remained nearby, clinging to one another. Sango advanced with one hand on her sword, ready to face off with the resident kitsune.

The brothel was collapsing in on itself. Support beams tumbled inward, crashing. The smoke burned Sango's nose, throat, and her eyes. She fumbled over her bodysuit, digging inside the large armor piece around her waist where her poison mask was hidden. She strapped it on and squinted her eyes against the burn of the smoke. Sango tried to venture inside the brothel, searching for Akisame and for any other women that needed rescue. There were none that she could see and the heat and smoke grew too intense for her. Sango retreated to the back side of the brothel, crying tears of irritation brought on by the fire smoke.

At the edge of the forest, standing between two short and stubby pine trees, Sango at last saw someone she recognized. It was the kitsune woman Eigo. Even in the orange light from the burning brothel, Sango made out Eigo's blonde hair. Sango approached the fox woman, calling her name.

Eigo lifted her green eyes away from the orange light and stared with alarm and shock at Sango. "Demon slayer," she whispered, her voice rank with fear. She started to back away, ready to flee.

"Don't go, Eigo." Sango loosened her mask, letting it hang off on one side. She breathed hard through the smoke and fought her own internal nausea, a side effect of pregnancy and stress. "Please—tell me what happened here. Where's Akisame?"

"Your friend killed Brother and Sister and then set this place on fire," Eigo told her, sighing. "She would've killed me as well if I hadn't helped her and you."

Sango smiled and closed her eyes in relief. "I'm glad she didn't kill you…"

"Have you come to do it?" Eigo asked, quietly.

"No, I came for Akisame. Do you know where she is?"

Eigo frowned. "She left heading west."

"Thank you," Sango told her. "You should leave this place, Eigo. Get a fresh, clean start. There are clans of kitsune in the Middle Lands that would take you I'm sure…"

"You're worried I will rebuild this place and imprison more women," Eigo murmured, reading Sango's concerns accurately. She smiled bitterly. "You have nothing to be afraid of from me."

Sango paused a moment longer, uncomfortable with just leaving the fox woman that had set her free. Finally she bowed to Eigo and thanked her. When Eigo made no response and didn't look at her, Sango at last turned and headed off, aiming for the west, calling Akisame's name.

* * *

Meeting with Miroku was joyous but also tinged with grief. Kagome told her story to Miroku and his sons, as well as to Nobe for the first time. She described Master Dani and pushed aside her messy black hair to show him the scar left by her encounter with the parasitic demon. They talked as they walked, heading east, retracing the path that Nobe and Kagome had taken the past few days.

After learning that he was in the company of an entire family of demon slayers, Nobe had gladly thrown in his lot with them, following them without complaint. He listened with wide eyes to Kagome and Miroku talk. When Miroku and his sons began analyzing Master Dani, Nobe gaped at how intimately they knew youkai, of how they debated over Kagome's observations the same way that men in Nobe's village would've discussed weather patterns to predict the upcoming crop season.

"I have come across many youkai that preyed on humans with spiritual powers, but it's truly rare to find one with this Master Dani's scale. There were hundreds of priestesses and monks at this temple?" Miroku asked.

Kagome nodded grimly. "All of them had the mark on their neck. It controlled us."

"You say you don't remember how you came to be free?" Kohimu asked.

"No," Kagome sighed heavily. "One moment I was talking to Kasai. She couldn't remember who she was either. I'm not sure why, but when we talked together she started to remember. But the next thing I remember was a pain in my neck and…" She frowned, struggling to dredge up her memories. "…weightlessness, I guess. Then I woke up on the side of the road with Nobe poking me with this walking stick."

The aforementioned boy looked at the ground, embarrassed. The slayers and Kagome paid him no mind, merely continued their somber conversation.

"It is clear to me that this Master Dani couldn't," Miroku paused and scowled giving a little bow apologetically as he went on, "I'm sorry to put it this way, but he couldn't _stomach_ you. Although he is clearly immune to most spiritual power, you Lady Kagome have always been a breed apart as Kikyo's reincarnation and carrier of the Sacred Jewel. When a simple-minded demon, or even just an animal such as a toad, eats something mildly poisonous to it, the creature expels that source of toxin as quickly as it can to avoid serious injury. Master Dani was intimidated by your strong spiritual powers and saw a threat rather than a meal."

Kagome disagreed, "He could've killed me if that were the case, Miroku."

Masuyo piped up from his place walking beside Nobe, who was only slightly older than the demon slayer boy. "But Aunt Kagome!" he cheeped. "It isn't the nature of some youkai, like parasitic youkai especially, to kill their prey outright. Master Dani thinks of humans as food. Youkai that do that tend to be sloppy. If they can't eat it and they don't have a purpose for it, they might just toss it aside."

Tisoki added his two cents, clearing his throat somewhere behind Miroku. "Also he may have an arrogant nature. He views humans as inferior and petty. He wouldn't want to waste energy or time trying to kill you…"

"Or," Kohimu muttered darkly, halfway to himself, "maybe he let you loose to unknowingly do his bidding."

Miroku answered this suggestion immediately. "I sense nothing demonic in the least anywhere near us. A possession is usually easily picked out amongst friends unless the youkai specializes in it and this Master Dani does not appear to bother with disguises."

Kagome smiled and let out a feigned breath of relief. "Wow, I'm glad to hear that."

"Overall," Miroku began, staring straight ahead with a firm, dark expression. "It doesn't bode well for Kasai—but we will find her soon, before this demon has had a chance to permanently harm her." After a moment Miroku asked Kagome, "You have no idea where Sango or Akisame are, correct? They were not in Master Dani's compound?"

Kagome shook her head. "I didn't see them and everyone there had spiritual powers I think. They weren't just dressed as monks and priestesses, they had actually sought out Master Dani to receive training." The interest in the subject probably meant that Kagome had been correct to assume that all the monks and priestesses under Master Dani's care, if it could be called that, possessed genuine power.

Miroku closed his eyes and tried to hide the pain he was feeling. His daughter was still imprisoned by Master Dani the parasite. And Sango was nowhere to be found yet. He had hoped that the bird would drop off its prey all in one area…

"Inuyasha is certainly looking for you," Miroku said. "We should split into two groups and seek out Lord Sesshomaru's help."

"Sesshomaru?" Kagome repeated, incredulously.

"Yes, he may be of great help to us in locating Sango and Akisame, as well as Inuyasha, Shippo, and Koinu. He owes our families a debt and I'm sure he will repay it." Miroku lifted his staff, setting it to jangling musically as he pointed to the south. "We should head southwards to reach Sesshomaru's lands and seek him out from there. It would take only a matter of days to find him and extract his help. And I'm sure that he will have heard something that could point us in the right direction."

"Villagers could tell us just as well," Kohimu muttered. "I vote that going south to Sesshomaru's lands is a waste of time. Mom and Kasai can't wait for that distraction."

"I knew you would feel that way, Kohimu," Miroku said, nodding to himself. "That is why I suggested two groups. If Sesshomaru refuses to aid us then it will not prove completely useless because you will still be out searching."

Kohimu nodded, agreeing quietly. "Who should I take with me, Father?"

"Take Tisoki and the boy Nobe."

In the back of their line, Nobe looked up, blinking at his name.

"You can show him what it is to be a demon slayer. If he wishes then I believe it would be good for you to take him on as an apprentice, Kohimu." Miroku had pulled his eldest son up to walk shoulder to shoulder with him. Kagome fell more in line with Tisoki, Masuyo, and Nobe.

Kohimu made a face of displeasure. "As an apprentice?" he grumbled.

Miroku stared at his son frankly, almost with a glare. "Yes, precisely. You are a fine demon slayer, Kohimu—but you must learn patience and proper teamwork. I know you take great pride in your strength and you are intensely competitive—but it has alienated you from others." When Miroku saw that Kohimu was about to argue with him, contradicting his father's judgment of his personality, the monk anticipated what his son was about to say and beat him to it. "Yes, I know you work well with Tisoki, but that's only because Tisoki has my boundless patience and he can tolerate you. But Kohimu, you and Masuyo do not get along, and you were constantly at odds with Kasai—"

"Fine," Kohimu snapped. "I'll take Tisoki and the boy and if he wants to become a slayer I'll take him as my apprentice."

At the end of the line, Masuyo nudged Nobe and whispered to him, "Be careful. My big brother has a temper like a hornet. He'll sting you again and again just for being around."

Nobe gulped and stared ahead at the tall, square shoulders of Kohimu, his intended mentor and teacher with terror.

* * *

Clouds rolled in just after dawn broke, fiery and brilliant. After their first glimpse of the sun it vanished, cut off by thickening storm clouds. The air was hot and humid on the plains and thick with moisture as well as a drifting smell of smoke. The combination worked to clog all three of their noses, leaving Inuyasha, Shippo, and Koinu all unhappy. They had walked all night without anything but brief rests to stop and drink water or eat a quick snack. Koinu suffered the indignity again of having his father carry him when he started to tire.

When he awoke, abruptly, Koinu saw that they were standing on the dry path before a rice paddy. Shippo had transformed into a child, a little girl. In this nonthreatening form Shippo was playfully asking the field worker for information.

Koinu started to sit up and struggle against his father's hold on him but Inuyasha made a small hissing noise, stopping him. "Stay there, Koinu. We look less threatening to these people this way."

Koinu sighed and turned his head to watch Shippo at work. The shape that the kit had taken was familiar, though Koinu couldn't see the face, only the back of the child's head and legs. Shippo often mimicked people that he knew. He had become an expert at mimicking Kagome's form over the years, which was a running gag within the family. He could fool Inuyasha for all of five seconds before the hanyou picked out Shippo's scent and bopped him on the head. He had more easily fooled Kagome by taking on Inuyasha's appearance or Akisame or Koinu because Kagome couldn't smell them, but because Shippo was intensely fond of Kagome he was unlikely to pull such stunts.

The voice that Shippo had adopted was young and high, but Koinu knew the voice immediately when he heard it clearly. He had thought from looking at Shippo from the back, with long black hair, that Shippo was impersonating Akisame as she had been as a child. But when Koinu heard the voice that Shippo used his ears fell backward and his face twisted with pain. The body that Shippo had chosen was Kasai's as she had been when they were about ten.

Throughout his childhood, Koinu had seen Miroku and Sango's children. Kohimu and Tisoki had been like his older brothers, distant and challenging but also teachers. Kasai, however, had been his _equal,_ his playmate, his friend. She was like a twin sister. When Kohimu and Tisoki had picked on her because she was smaller and a _girl,_ Koinu had taken her in as his own. When her brothers refused to play with her because they knew they would be too rough and she might get hurt and cry and get them in trouble, Koinu had practiced fighting with her. He had amazing restraint and control from an incredibly early age, meaning that Akisame, Kasai, and Masuyo adored him.

Staring at Shippo, wearing the outdated image of Kasai, Koinu realized that the kit wasn't quite getting it _right. _Shippo bowed and played off an innocent, shy demeanor that in life, even as a tiny child Kasai had never possessed. Kasai had always been bold and playful and competitive. She postured like a male peacock struggling to impress a mate, but really all she'd been and remained was a girl that struggled for recognition like any teenager. Before they had become teens, Kasai's posturing hadn't extended to Koinu, but time and the awareness of _sex_ had changed even that. Now she confused Koinu as he fought to define her, even as he struggled to define himself.

Caught in his memories, Koinu didn't register what transpired in words between Shippo and the villager field worker quickly. By the time he did Shippo was making his exit and Inuyasha was bristling with what he'd heard.

"What did I miss?" Koinu whispered at his father's flattened dog ears.

Inuyasha started walking and only answered Koinu with a dark, deep growl.

Koinu tugged against his father's hold and Inuyasha at last let him down as Shippo hurried back up from the slimy water in the rice paddy to join them. He was still wearing his ten year old image of Kasai. Koinu stared at the fox and frowned deeply. Shippo was an excellent mimic in appearance. He had Kasai's long, straight black hair, her violet eyes, bright and intelligent, and even the freckles that had dotted her cheeks when she'd been a girl.

Shippo grinned at Koinu, using Kasai's image to do it. "How do I look?" he asked, piping in Kasai's small child's voice.

"You didn't get her right," Koinu murmured.

Shippo blinked. "What did I miss?" The kit's own voice leaked through now, deeper but still that of a boy.

"Your acting was bad, that's all," Koinu sighed, looking after Inuyasha who was already leaving them behind. "What did the man say that has Father so upset?"

"If I wanted to make it accurate, I would've ogled the guy and asked him to father my children." Shippo grinned mischievously as he and Koinu started walking at a jog to catch up to Inuyasha.

Koinu ignored his teasing. "Never mind that. What did the man say?"

Shippo-Kasai's expression darkened, as did the voice that the kit used. "They've heard of a giant bird before. It comes every so often and takes villagers. He said that the gull flies north and south along the west coast, abducting people and carrying them off. He didn't know where, he thought that it takes them to several different places. One of them is to the north where the gull takes only women. He thought…" Shippo stopped and pinched his lips—Kasai's lips—together.

"He thought what?" Koinu prompted.

"He thought it was a 'house of ill-repute,' as he called it. A demon brothel."

Though he had no way to understand it, Koinu's thoughts immediately jumped with alarm and pain. He thought of Akisame, of her fanged smile as she laughed with him. _She is there…_

"Koinu," Shippo-Kasai spoke with alarm in a high, fluting girl's voice. "A man never shows his tears…"

Startled, Koinu brushed beneath his eyes and found the wetness of his tears on his clawed fingertips. He hadn't known he was crying, he'd only felt the swell of empathy and regret rise inside his chest, crushing his heart. _My little sister! I failed you._ The next breath he took choked, ragged, though he fought to control it. The tears stopped, but the internal agony burned onward.

"I guess I'm not a man yet, Shippo," he answered dully. When he peeked at the kit he saw that Shippo was blinking fiercely in Kasai's form. Little tears streaked down Shippo-Kasai's cheeks. Koinu smiled, though the expression didn't reach his blue eyes. "Now you're really off-base, Shippo. Kasai never cries."

Shippo gave a small laugh. "Shut up," he murmured.

They traveled northward at a steady, fast pace checking in each village for word of the demon brothel. Shippo donned different disguises in each, all of them purposefully human. He masqueraded as a six year old Kohimu and then posed as Lady Rin in full, rich kimono robes. The villagers gawked at the kit when he scurried through their midst with such speed and a total lack of grace—clearly not a traditional, courtly lady after all.

Finally at the last village, right on the beach at the foot of the rise of the mountain where the demon brothel was rumored to be located, Shippo took on Masuyo's appearance. Inuyasha was in a hurry, however, and when Shippo tried to slow the group and speak to the people of the village the hanyou shouted at him to get moving.

Fortunately, before they had passed through the village completely, Inuyasha's sensitive ears picked out a woman's voice shouting his name somewhere amongst the huts and houses. He halted and tried to follow the sound, his ears swiveling. Koinu picked it up just after his father and paused at his side, fighting to listen. Was the voice…familiar?

Shippo, disguised as Masuyo, sniffed at the air and found the scent first. "It's Sango! Sango's here!"

The demon slayer emerged through the throng of villagers, still shouting Inuyasha and Koinu's names until she finally saw the group with her own eyes. The joy in her face changed to surprise. Her mouth fell open, gaping. "Masuyo?" she asked.

Shippo laughed nervously and shrunk away from her, hiding behind Koinu. He answered her with his own voice. "Not exactly, Sango. Sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Sango grinned, laughing with relief. "I'm so glad to see you."


	20. Breakfast of the Chosen

A/N: I do apologize for my unusual absence. There was the fourth of July but honestly that shouldn't have slowed me down. Not me, I live to write. Forget holidays. But somehow it did. Maybe it's the articles I'm writing that slowed me down (I've written a grand total of six now and I have over 700 hits, not much but growing). I've had trouble writing lately partly because I have a horrible chair and because my creative spark got skinny and selfish.

Or it could've been the scathing review I got of _Runaway_ where I was told my plot was poor and that I have static characters. Now saying those things is okay, although it still hurts and there are MUCH better ways to say it that will make a writer WANT to work with you to please you with their changes, but what really made it hurt was comments like "I'm glad I didn't get into it because every chapter would've disappointed me." Well the how are you reviewing me with any honesty if you haven't really read it? But still, I wouldn't be a writer if it didn't get under my skin a little.

But at any rate here is this update. I'll offer a **warning for Kasai's part** again. I hope you all enjoy it and if you do don't be shy about telling me so. Reviews always fuel burnt out writers. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own them or basically anything.

Last Chapter: Sango met up with IY, Shippo, and Koinu. Miroku and sons as well as Kagome and Nobe talked. Before meeting with IY's group, Sango backtracked to the burning brothel and found Eigo there, but no sign of Akisame. Kasai woke up and found that she was supposed to eat a soup made of meat taken from humans. She also met Osore, the other monk that is "Chosen" to carry Master Dani's offspring, the little boy monk.

* * *

**Breakfast of the Chosen**

After Mirimi had served the four bowls of soup made from human flesh, all four of Master Dani's Chosen rejected it. Hunger woke inside each of them, making them feel nauseous, but they stayed in the room with the bowls, waiting and talking, trying to understand what had happened to them and what was _going_ to happen.

The Chosen were Kenpo, Kasai, Hato the other priestess, and the boy monk Osore. Hato and Osore were still children, Kenpo and Kasai were teenagers. Hato and Osore looked to Kasai and Kenpo for reassurance and leadership while they whimpered in pain and nausea, holding their abused stomachs.

By midday their small room had grown hot and stifling. Kasai was the first to try to leave through the door that Mirimi had come through, but as her hand laid over the handle her neck convulsed and pain shot through her head and down her body. Kasai crumpled, crying out. Kenpo came to her side and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her away from the door.

"We meant no insult," he chanted in a monotone, and Kasai thought of her father as her pain left her and her body fell limp with exhaustion. "We ask for strength to endure. We ask for deliverance."

"Thank you," Kasai murmured. She felt Kenpo's strong arms around her, the muscle hidden beneath his robes. Her thoughts turned toward his legs and his backsides. Were they muscled and hard too? Her hands twitched in her lap and she lifted them and squeezed Kenpo's arm, feeling the bicep. Kenpo accepted her touch and made soothing noises, as if to a child. He thought she was thanking him with a touch, but in reality she was copping a feel. The old lechery calmed Kasai and she found the strength to push Kenpo away and face the other two Chosen, mere children.

"Each of us swallowed something when Master Dani kissed us, correct?" she asked.

Osore and Hato whimpered but their body language and weeping eyes told Kasai that the answer to her question was yes. She glanced back to Kenpo just at her side and slightly behind, closer to the door. The monk closed his eyes and nodded solemnly.

Kasai continued her explanation. "Although I am not as extensively trained as my parents in demon-kind, I think we all know that Master Dani is a parasite. I believe he is a parasitic insect youkai. What we swallowed was his offspring."

Hato made a gagging noise and then started crying on her futon. The others stayed silent, listening seemingly.

"We have to resist him no matter what—and find a way to get the parasite out of us," Kasai said, looking between the two youngest Chosen, hoping that her bravery, as thin and trembling as it was inside her, would embolden them and ease their horror and fear. Hope was what she needed from them, not despair. Anger, not defeat.

"What if we don't?" the boy, Osore asked. "What will happen to us?"

Kasai sucked at her own lips, making a face. "That doesn't matter right now. We control what happens to us. When humans work as a team they can bring down demons the size of mountains, demons from hell, demons of any kind and any size. Master Dani is nothing compared to what my—"

A clattering sound disturbed them and all four of the Chosen turned and saw the wide, round bulky frame of Master Dani standing in the now open doorway. He smiled, compressing his tiny black eyes and showing the small pointed teeth in his mouth, arrayed in their six rows and covered in slimy, sticky saliva. "My children, is it true what I've heard you saying in here!" he gasped, as if wounded.

Pain erupted in Kasai's neck and she fell into a bow with her forehead to the floor as her limbs quaked and shook. Hato's crying increased, growing shrill with panic.

Master Dani stepped into the room, making the floor creak and moan beneath him. "Kasai," he moved around Kenpo and knelt at her side, brushing her long, uncontrolled hair with one hand. "Fiery one, did I hear you call me nothing? My child, you are foolishly bold. Perhaps it is hunger that makes you lose your tongue, my daughter. Rise…"

Kasai's legs obeyed, propping her up. Master Dani's hand guided her, ushering her steps until she was standing before the tray where the cannibal-stew sat before her. "Kneel, daughter," Master Dani ordered her, breathing in her ear. The tangy, metallic smell on his breath made Kasai nearly gag. _Blood_…

She knelt, shivering body-wide. Her violet eyes stared wide as the bowls below her at the black-red stews. "No," she breathed, anticipating what was about to happen. Her gaze slid to Master Dani's beady eyes and she saw the intelligent, conniving gleam inside them, leering out at her. That gleam whispered the answer back to her: _Yes…_

Master Dani grabbed up the nearest bowl and lifted it, holding it at chest level before Kasai. "Come my fiery daughter, you are famished and parched. Lead your brothers and your sister in a toast to your continued health!"

Kasai watched helplessly, shaking and sweating as her hands moved of their own accord and accepted the bowl with its foul liquid. She lowered her head and turned her lips away from it. With her head turned Kasai saw Hato whimpering and crying and—_watching her._ The pain in her neck rose, making Kasai start crying. Her hands shook and the nasty soup inside the bowl sloshed and spilled onto her hands. _I will not drink. I will not drink. I can make it through this, I must make it through this to help Kenpo, Osore and little Hato._

Master Dani's bristled hands moved over Kasai's, startling her into looking back at the bowl and the parasitic master. "Drink," Master Dani commanded her. With his unfaltering strength, Master Dani pushed the bowl to her lips. The liquid rolled down Kasai's chin when her lips stayed tightly locked together—but Master Dani moved one of his own hands and gripped her jaw, pressing on the spot where the mandible hinged, just below her ears. Kasai's mouth fell open and the black-red soup flowed into her mouth.

She gagged and choked but Master Dani's grip on her jaw forced Kasai to stay where she was. She could not turn away to cough or vomit. The liquid flowed down her throat and Kasai swallowed to keep herself from downing in it. She heard Hato's crying grow into a feverish pitch.

Kasai closed her eyes and began to cry; tears streamed down her cheeks and fell onto Master Dani's hands at her jaw.

The bowl pulled away and Master Dani changed his hold, pulling Kasai close to him and embracing her. When they were close, Kasai smelled the rotting stink of meat, the scent that marked a predator. She gritted her teeth and started to gag but Master Dani jerked her head about and whispered into her ear. "It would be a great shame if I had to kill one of the others because you refused your food my daughter. Keep it down."

He released her and Kasai collapsed limply, still crying. She watched as Master Dani picked up the other bowls and distributed them about the room. He knelt beside each of the Chosen for only a minute or so to force them to drink. The Chosen accepted his control and the stew, shaking and crying and gagging. For each of them Master Dani warned that they had to keep their food down or he would have someone else killed. The parasite's knowledge of humans startled Kasai. Master Dani understood that humans could easily sacrifice themselves in a time of suffering, choosing death rather than ongoing torture. It was a trait animals didn't exhibit. As a parasite Master Dani shouldn't have understood the trait—but he did. By threatening the others rather than each individual member of the group, each person was forced to consider the lives of the others around them. It would've worked surprisingly well—if Kasai hadn't been there to challenge it.

As soon as Master Dani had gone, Kasai sat up and wiped at her face furiously. She grabbed the bowl that Master Dani had used to force feed her and turned to the other Chosen ones. "We can't let him win. Take the bowls—everyone—and bring it back up! We can't allow ourselves to digest it."

Kenpo looked up at her. Blackish-red trails of moisture ran down the sides of his chin and dribbled onto his neck and collar. "Kasai—he'll hurt someone if we do."

"He won't," Kasai insisted. "We all have to do it, together. If we all do it he can't hurt anyone. He _needs_ us. He's lying. We really are his children, remember?" she bared her teeth, savage at the thought that her body was harboring the monster parasite's offspring. "We have to resist everything he does to us!"

Osore's face was grim as he grabbed his own bowl and hung his head over it. "I'll do it—I'm not a cannibal!" He cried once, his shoulder's shaking, and then retched, making a coughing sound as he vomited.

Hato made a gagging noise just watching him and then lost control as well, puking half into her lap and then into the bowl. She cried, sobbing between heaves.

Kenpo and Kasai were left, staring at one another. Slowly Kenpo lifted his bowl. "I think we're making a mistake, Kasai. What if he doesn't need all of us, as you say? There are many eggs hatched in a bird's nest, but as they grow the strongest chicks push the weakest out until only a few remain. What if this is a test?"

Kasai shook her head. "It's not." With that she brought the bowl close to her face and envisioned the human tooth floating in its depths…she heaved and emptied her stomach into the bowl.

As she finished and wiped shakily at her mouth, she saw that Kenpo was in the middle of doing the same and she smiled weakly. The bitter taste in her mouth—and the bit of meat stuck in her teeth—made her heave again, but through it she felt surprising strength. She felt victory. _We will resist Master Dani, we will starve the parasite out of us…_

But when she looked up again she saw that Master Dani was standing in the doorway, frowning into their room. While she and the other Chosen had been doubled over heaving, their parasitic master had slid the door open to peer in at them. One of his bulky, bowed arms carried a small boy, one of the other Chosen like Mirimi that hadn't gotten the kiss that Kenpo, Hato, and Osore had. The boy was limp, unconscious. Kasai saw the shallow, jerky rise and fall of his small chest.

Master Dani made a faint whistling sound through his lips and his front teeth. "What a great shame, my children. I had hoped you would not resist. It would make both our tasks so much easier…"

Hato began to cry in earnest. The little girl's shoulders shook. Inside her priestess's garb the girl was a blob of red and white, swallowed by the traditional colors. Kasai caught the girl's crying and saw Kenpo's face twisted in fresh, paralyzing fear. She gazed up at Master Dani and found that he was already staring at her, grinning with his mouthful of needlelike teeth.

There was no pain in her neck yet. Pushing aside the fear that threatened to overwhelm her like Osore, Hato, and Kenpo, Kasai lunged for Master Dani and the boy that he held like a sack of grains under his armpit. Before she could reach him the pain smashed into her, as hard and physically solid as a rock. Kasai's vision wavered and then blacked out completely. She fell forward, crying out and twitching convulsively.

As her vision cleared Kasai found that her muscles were weak and sluggish, though her mind functioned with the speed and sharpness of a blade. She heard and saw Master Dani move over her, kneeling at her side as he had so many other times. He dropped the unconscious boy—no older than Kasai's youngest brother Koudo—in front of Kasai so that the young slayer could see the boy's eyes opened in tiny, narrow slits. His chest moved spastically, struggling to draw in enough oxygen to continue surviving.

_He's paralyzed,_ Kasai realized. _Just like us._

Master Dani's hand closed over her hair then and Kasai gritted her teeth, gnashing them together as he hauled her up into a sitting position and stared into her face. His expression was outwardly calm, but Kasai felt sure she saw a gleam of something dark and unreadable in his beady, insect-like eyes.

"I know that all of you have been following this one," his grip changed position to her neck, holding her in a stranglehold. "My disobedient daughter. I know that in your past life you were raised as a demon slayer. You feel it is within your power to slay me as if I were any other monster you've fought alongside your brothers. But I am like nothing you have seen and I cannot be defeated." He stopped and his grin widened as he reacted to Kasai's bafflement. Master Dani knew _too much_. It was a new depth to him that Kasai hadn't quite anticipated. She had heard tales of mind reading demons—was that Master Dani's ability? Or was it something else…?

Master Dani's thumb stroked her cheek. The surface was rough and calloused and covered with tiny bristles that were invisible to the naked eye. Kasai narrowed her eyes at him, struggling to control her wild trembling fear by letting the analytical, quiet but powerful voice of her father speak in her mind. _He is an insect youkai, surely. It is not hair around his mouth or on his hands or sticking out of his ears. They are bristles, the mark of an insect. To each kind its own. Fur in mammals, feathers in birds, scales and claws in reptiles and fins with scales in fish. But for the insects it is stiff bristles…_

"My children, I am merciful. Though you have disobeyed me I will not harm any of you—but you will be punished for following my disobedient daughter. Kasai—daughter of fire. The element in your name offers you a choice. You may burn up, or you may flourish under my care and control. I will start with you."

Kenpo's voice disturbed them then in a harsh, grating whisper. "Please Master Dani, spare her…"

"I have no intention of harming her, but," he moved his hand to grasp the back of her neck and Kasai whimpered as her limbs fell limp and numb, "Kasai must learn as you all must that there is only one way to behave as my children and my Chosen. That one path is _obedience._ Every monk and priestess must know this."

Master Dani's hands left Kasai and she found herself sitting upright without his support, breathing hard as her stomach rippled, moving violently within her. Her mouth became dry, her tongue thick and her mind dulled. She watched herself move through a haze as her quaking hands reached out for the small boy that Master Dani had deposited at her side. She took hold of his shoulders, just barely registering the thinness of the boy's frame beneath her hands.

"Take your fill my daughter," Master Dani said, purring. "I had hoped to wean you, to make your transition gentle, but fire it seems is most difficult to control. It does not learn very well." He turned toward the others, all of them gaping with open mouths, staring in a paralytic horror. "It is my greatest wish that the rest of my children will dutifully learn from their sister's lesson. Be obedient or I will punish you."

Kasai pulled the boy toward her, as if to embrace him. She saw his eyes move behind the heavy lids and noticed the rich brown color of his irises. _Like my brothers, like my mother's eyes._ She watched as her hands turned his head away from her, exposing the pale, delicate skin of his neck. A blue line pulsed just beneath his chin—the artery.

_No! No!_ Kasai flicked her gaze to Master Dani as a horrible knot of despair expanded inside her chest, filling it and constricting it. She opened her mouth to curse at him, to let a stream of foul words spill out of her—as if that could condemn him alone and free her from his spell—but her body betrayed her. Before she could speak her lips were pressed to the boy's cool skin and her jaw worked, gnawing like a dog on a bone in a clumsy, hungry motion.

The boy let out a small wet, choking cry. His tiny hands pushed on her chest. Warmth spurted into Kasai's mouth and flowed around her lips. When it filled her mouth her throat convulsed, forcing her to swallow.

Hato's crying had resumed, but with it now Kasai heard Osore. Kenpo was silent and Kasai longed to turn to look at him. _It's not me, it's not me!_

She closed her eyes and fought, tilting her head left and right, but her mouth and throat moved independently of her will. She choked and her stomach cramped up. Instinctual revulsion nearly overpowered the other influence in her body—the parasite, Master Dani's offspring.

And then the boy slipped out of her hands, falling flat halfway on Kasai's knees and halfway on the floor. Kasai coughed, trying to gag but her esophagus closed, keeping the foul contents inside her. She caught snatches of the room around her: Master Dani's proud, triumphant expression, Osore's ghostly paleness and wide eyes, the blood spatter over her hands and chest, and the boy twitching at her feet in an expanding pool of his own blood. His brown eyes were wide and staring now, nearly lifeless.

"Now my children, it is time for the rest of you to eat as well." Master Dani lifted his hand and pointed just behind Kasai at Kenpo. "You my son, you are next. Come and take your fill."

Kenpo's robes rustled and he crawled forward feebly. He pushed Kasai easily aside, moving toward the boy's body like a scavenger after the lioness's kill. Kasai saw his gaze move once to her and she saw the brightness of tears streaming down his face along with the horror he felt when he looked at her blood-spattered face and body.

Kasai doubled over and touched her forehead to the ground. She searched desperately for her father's teaching voice, but it was drowned out by the wet slurping sound as Kenpo bit into the boy. Kasai's uncertainties, the shortcomings she had always struggled to keep hidden, surged to the foreground of her mind, battling one another for supremacy while she suffered. Despair bloomed inside her, a black flower with wicked thorns.

It really was hopeless. _I am going to die here, alone without my family, _she thought. But it was just as she'd always known: _without them I'm weak, I can't do anything. I'm not strong enough. I couldn't save Kagome and I can't save Kenpo and the others. There's no hope for me._

* * *

After destroying the kitsune brothel, Akisame moved through the forest trees and over the hills and mountains like a wild creature. By instinct she put as much distance as she could in one night between herself and the place where she'd been detained. At first she traveled west, driven by some deep, unnamable call, but then her conscious mind turned her away from that course. Partly it was because the mountains were nearly impassable outside of the road, which she refused to travel on. But mostly it was knowledge, though she didn't know exactly from where, that traveling in a straight line made her easy to follow. After that thought Akisame varied her path, sometimes even doubling back or going out of her way to pass through a stream or a river to cover her scent.

When sleep called in the evening Akisame climbed a tree and roosted with the songbirds and the hawks while the bats squeaked overhead, hunting in the warm, bug-laden air of summer. She awoke at dawn when the songbirds sprang to life, cheeping and serenading the daylight. Akisame traveled with food in mind after that. She considered killing a bird or a hare or even a mouse but the fire she'd need to cook the meat would alert others to her presence. Akisame stayed at the base of her sleeping tree for some time as the sun climbed higher, considering her choices. In the end she picked at plants, sniffing them and taste-testing them before she risked eating. For protein she found an easy source of insects. She popped grasshoppers, spiders, earthworms, pill bugs, beetles, and every pesky mosquito that tried to bite her straight into her mouth and swallowed them down.

On a pleasantly full belly she set off once more, southeasterly. At the first stream that she came across, at around noon, Akisame drank heartily and tried to bathe. Halfway through her attempts to scrub the dirt from her legs the minnows in the stiller parts of the stream distracted her. Akisame lost track of the time that she spent knelt in the water waiting motionlessly until her patience dried up and she started lunging and diving after the little fishes and tadpoles. When she at last caught a salamander and tried to swallow it still wriggling she tasted the bitterness of its skin and gagged, realizing that it was poisonous.

She watched with a scowl as the salamander, black and purple, swam away without looking back. Akisame pawed at her tongue and spat, growling irritably.

And then a deep voice rang out through the forest and around the stream, cackling in laughter. Akisame ducked low in the water, blushing even as her heart picked up with fear and adrenaline. Her golden eyes searched the dappled lights and darks of the woods, the shadows of the trees and the glimmering pillars of sunlight. She bared her teeth, as if she could intimidate them from in the stream, naked as the day she'd been born. Part of her longed to call out to the stranger, wherever he was, and challenge him. The rest of her ordered silence. Perhaps the stranger hadn't really seen her…? There was no sense in drawing further attention to herself.

Especially while she was naked.

At that thought Akisame sprang into action, rushing out of the stream and grabbing her dirty, discarded robes. She pulled them on and tied them quickly over her dripping body. As she finished the last makeshift knot in what amounted to an obi, Akisame's keen ears picked out the light rustle of the underbrush and the tiniest tremor of footsteps passing over the stony earth. She turned to face the sound and started backing away, sniffing at the wind to identify her enemy.

The creature that appeared out of the shadowy forest was in a humanoid shape. His hair was pinned back and of only a medium length. It was black hair, but the eyes were a startling green. There was no armor or other identifying feature but the mannish creature wore animal furs and as he stepped forward something in his gait told Akisame that he was a canid, a dog, a wolf, or a fox.

While she examined him the stranger laughed again, grinning widely at her. Akisame saw his canines, large and sharp. "You're on my pack's territory, little bitch," he said.

Akisame had her answer in that moment. He'd said _pack, _and since dogs and foxes tended to be family units or loners that meant this beast was a wolf youkai. Akisame poised herself in a battle-ready stance and growled, threatening him. "You have a problem with me being here, wolf?"

The wolf snorted. "Of course, idiot. I'm a scout and you're trespassing." He sniffed once and made a face of distaste. "Besides our pack doesn't accept dogs."

"I'm not asking for _acceptance,"_ Akisame spat, disgusted. "And I'm not about to ask for your permission either. In fact since you were probably sitting back there peeping at me naked _downwind_ like a coward so I wouldn't smell you, I figure you owe me."

The wolf sneered. "Me? Look at a mongrel dog bitch? I'd rather eat shit."

"Yeah that sounds like a good hobby for you—why don't you go do it right now and stay the fuck out of my way?" Fighting the blush that had swept up over her face, Akisame started to walk forward at an angle from the wolf to avoid him without heading in the complete opposite direction. It was a step down in boldness from her first outrageous thought: Walk straight at him and slash at his face.

The wolf matched her changed course. The small stream separated them but it was a tiny barrier, easily leapt over. The wolf jeered at her over the small distance. "Hey bitch! I can't let a dog trespass in my pack's territory—even if she only talks big and smells almost like a weak, pathetic human."

Akisame ignored him and leapt into the trees to gain some distance between herself and the wolf. Two instincts fought within her. One demanded a violent retaliation to prove her strength, the other called for caution. From the shelter of the trees, with thick leaves and some twenty five vertical feet separating her from the ground where the wolf prowled, Akisame frowned as she grappled with one very important question: _Am I a coward for not fighting him?_

The oddness of her fixation also struck Akisame, hard. Why should she care what the wolf thought of her? She really was a mongrel, a mutt that was mostly human. Yet somehow she was _proud,_ she carried pride as part of her identity. Pride was as much a part of her as her teeth or her claws or her long black hair. It drove her to fight and challenge the world around her whenever it deemed her weak or a mongrel. She recalled Ratsuwan puzzling aloud over her _innocence._ How could she have been sheltered, how could she be proud if she had lived the life of an outcast? How could she curse like a heartless thug if she was actually an innocent girl?

"You think I won't come up there and chase you out?" the wolf laughed below her, howling. "If you want to pretend you're part cat we can do that, little bitch!"

Akisame scowled and growled. "I'm getting sick of you calling me that, shithead."

"What was that, _little bitch?"_ the wolf taunted. He was young and cocky. Akisame watched through narrowed golden eyes as he leapt over the stream and charged toward her tree, snarling in his eagerness to scare her out of hiding. She stayed where she was, leaning against the trunk and rubbing one hand over the bark, as the wolf circled her tree like a shark. "Come down and fight me or run off like the little coward you are!"

Akisame leaned forward and stared down at him. The wolf stopped his pacing and grinned up at her. His teeth were bright and sharp, his posture proud. Akisame smirked for a moment and then worked her mouth, spitting. The wad of spittle flew and fell. The wolf scrambled to escape its path and snarled with disgust.

"Sick little bitch! What a coward!" The wolf launched himself into the air with his hand curled into a fist, pulled back and ready to strike.

Before he could reach her level, Akisame stepped off her branch and fell to the ground, dragging her claws over the bark on the tree trunk to slow her descent. She landed and rolled as the wolf's frustrated shouts filled her ears. "That's right little bitch! Run away! No dog is equal to even a lone wolf! And against my pack you'd never—" his voice cut off abruptly with a gasp, a sharp intake of breath through his mouth and nose.

Akisame got to her feet and faced the tree that she'd just left. The wolf was staring at her from underneath its shadow. His green eyes were wide, gaping circles for a moment with shock, but then they narrowed and his lips curled upward with hate. "You really are a coward!" he spat at the ground between them.

"I'm not running away," Akisame snapped. "And I wasn't the one picking the fight here! If you want a fight I'll take you on but—"

"Fuckin' cheat. You set this up!" The wolf's snarl had intensified and Akisame made out the first sparks of fear in his scent and in his eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Akisame demanded, shaking her head in bafflement. She watched as the wolf backed away. His tail quivered as it turned upward, curling between his legs. He was slinking away…and his gaze was roving over the forest _behind _Akisame…

And then Akisame felt the tickle in the back of her mind, the rippling in her scalp. She whirled around to face the forest behind her. She sniffed frantically at the wind. A different youkai had spooked the wolf, sending him scurrying away. What could frighten off a battle-hungry, cocky young wolf?

A white figure lingered in the dappled darkness beneath the trees. It was tall and elegant and the scent that wafted to her was—it was—

The shape lunged forward, blurring before her eyes. She had time enough to blink and halfway raise her arms to shield herself from an oncoming impact and then the demon was on her. A tight, cold grip closed around her throat. Akisame felt the air flow around her as the figure smashed into her and grabbed hold of her with such speed and force that she felt weightless for a split second. Then something hard smashed into her back and Akisame felt and smelled the tree that she had leapt from. The leaves whooshed, sighing in the wind that her opponent's lightning fast movement made.

She stared into its face as the pressure on her throat increased, starting to choke her. White hair flowed around a smooth, elfin face. Pointed ears marked him as youkai. Two reddish stripes colored his cheeks and a crescent moon the color of a plum was on his forehead. His eyes were the same gold as her own and his scent kept her—instinctually—from slashing destructively at his wrists. Because aside from her own survival there was one other fierce prime directive for even a quarter inuyoukai girl like Akisame, and that was the preservation of her _family,_ of her blood.

The youkai holding her was her uncle.

* * *

After hearing Sango's tale, Inuyasha, Shippo, and Koinu spent their second consecutive night awake and on the move. Their latest companion was Sango who spent most of her time on Inuyasha's back, occupying the spot that Koinu had in the recent past. The recovered demon slayer now had her complete ensemble of weapons, including hiraikotsu. The bone boomerang was strapped to her back while Sango clung to Inuyasha and kept her eyes closed, wrestling with nausea.

Although Sango would've liked to walk she didn't have the speed or stamina currently to match Inuyasha's new and frantic pace and part of her worried over the scrap of life growing in her womb. Too much stress would surely bring on a miscarriage quickly and the last thing Sango wanted was to slow her companions in their search for Akisame.

She had been relieved to hear that her sons were healthy—only the women had been punished by Hakugei. She would've liked to discuss the whale youkai Hakugei with Shippo, Koinu, and Inuyasha—Why and how had he wiped their memories? Had they seen the last of him? Had Hakugei spared the villagers on the east coast? Why had he split them up? Where had he sent Kagome and Kasai?—but now was far from the time.

Inuyasha made Sango's journey as smooth as he could. When he put in the effort the hanyou was remarkably light on his feet. He jutted out his elbows out to let his sleeves catch the wind while his hands still held Sango's knees to his back, he leaned forward when landing to let his legs take the brunt of each landing. In many ways he was like a cat more than a dog—though he lacked the elegance of one—using his toes while he traveled.

Thinking of felines made Sango recall Kilala. She smiled into Inuyasha's red-robed back. Kilala had left years ago after she and Miroku had married and begun having children. Babies, human babies anyway, weren't Kilala's forte. Babies gnawed, drooled, and could be harsh or cruel without realizing it. For them an exploratory pull on one of her tails was fun, but for Kilala it was painful. There were other factors, like her own life cycle, that had sent her away. A desire to travel and perhaps even seek out a mate of her own to father a litter of kittens. Sango had little doubt that she would see Kilala again someday if the little cat youkai still lived.

_We could sure use your help now,_ she thought. The old nostalgia reached her and Sango lifted her head to peer through the dark at Shippo and Koinu through Inuyasha's wild, uncontrollable white hair.

Shippo was in the lead, holding his own as a valuable scout while Inuyasha accepted the position as a sort of packhorse without complaint. Koinu traveled sometimes at his father's side, other times just behind. Sometimes he made attempts to shout to Sango, asking her if she was okay or offering a comforting word. _So much like his mother, I hope she's all right…_

When they had reached the charred remains of the kitsune brothel Sango had led them to where she'd last seen Eigo the fox woman and detailed what she'd told her of Akisame's escape and whereabouts. After she had explained that _Akisame_ had burned down the brothel and killed two of the foxes—according to Eigo—Inuyasha exploded.

"What the hell, Sango? _And you believed her?"_

For the first time Sango had to consider the possibility that Eigo had lied. Perhaps Eigo had killed her brother and sister and burned the brothel with Akisame inside. And yet why would Eigo have freed all of the human women then? Sango stood her ground. "I think it was the truth, Inuyasha. The fox woman was genuine."

Without answering Inuyasha had left to pace toward the west. It wasn't long before he was bent over double, sniffing loudly at the ground, seeking his child's scent. Shippo and Koinu were left to stare at the blackened remains of the brothel. Shippo moved inside, ducking under charcoaled beams and kicking at the remains of walls that had once been painted beautifully. His pawed hind feet were soon covered in soot, all that remained of luxurious mahogany walls. The kit searched for remains and quickly found them.

He lifted a large canine skull. It was sooty from the fire and cracked in some spots, but as Shippo turned it around to stare into its empty eye sockets the hollows in the bone snapped and crackled with purple-blue light. Shippo dropped it, crying out and shaking his clawed hands in alarm.

"It's a fox, isn't it?" Sango asked.

Shippo nodded energetically. "Yeah, but it…it's like it was purified…"

Inuyasha was at the edge of the clearing on his hands and knees. He had turned around at Shippo's cry and he grunted at the latest bit of news. His ears flattened atop his skull and his golden eyes flicked knowingly toward Koinu.

Sango, keen-eyed, had picked up on the subtle father-son interaction. She turned her attention to Koinu and watched as the youth's own ears flattened and his face twisted with emotional pain. "Akisame did this?" he asked in a quiet, disbelieving voice. His stance changed as he tucked his hands behind his back, hiding them.

"Yeah, she did," Inuyasha said. He was on his feet and motioning to Sango. "Let's move. I've found her scent."

That exchange stayed with Sango while they traveled through the night, struggling to follow Akisame's scent. It was like tracking the ectoplasm of a drunken ghost. Akisame's path started out easy to trail, but then it changed. She doubled back on herself, changed directions, left the gaming trails of the ground behind for miles at a time to take only to the trees. When her scent nearly vanished in a tiny stream Shippo stopped to laugh and tease Inuyasha.

"You didn't teach her to use Tetsusaiga and she doesn't know who she is, but she remembers _something_ you taught her for sure!" He grinned widely.

Inuyasha growled. He shifted and let go of Sango's knees, allowing her to slide to the ground. "Everyone spread out and look for her trail."

Sango shuffled forward and knelt to drink at the stream first before joining the others in their search. If Akisame could remember Inuyasha's lessons then it was probably safe to say that she was regaining her memory too. As she got to her feet and moved to search along the stream for signs of Akisame's footsteps, Sango felt an unpleasant tightening in her womb. _Just a little longer,_ she pleaded herself,_ a little longer. After Akisame, we have to find Kasai and Kagome. _She steadied her breathing and bent over to search the underbrush.

_Just a little longer…_

* * *

A/N: Next time:

_Through her rough, harried breathing, Akisame heard the youkai address her. His voice was distant and calm, like water running smoothly down a mountainside. "What are you doing here? Where is Inuyasha?"_

_She knew that name—and yet she did not. Akisame gathered her strength and her courage and scrambled back from the youkai. She got to her feet but her head swam dizzily. She leaned on the tree and kept it between herself and the youkai. "Who?" she asked, panting. _


	21. Otooji

A/N: As this story has been written it has evolved and I'm starting to hate my initial description. The plot is just so massive it's hard to describe in such a small space. Anyone have any good suggestions? Feel free to share them. I like the idea of Inuyasha having a midlife crisis, and I think after this adventure he kinda still is (he can't deal with Aki growing up and by way of denial really wants another baby) going to have a midlife crisis. Though perhaps this whole deal is a midlife crisis. If it isn't midlife anyway it sure is a crisis.

I think you will like this chapter, though it's also possible everyone will feel upset or disappointed. As I was writing it I felt immense pressure to keep Sess in character, as I always do. Aki-Sess interaction is a LOT like IY-Sess interaction. Sess has a heart, we've seen it in the manga and in the anime, but he's like an onion as Shrek said famously. There are a LOT of layers. So although I think he does care, his interaction with his niece is a lot less pleasant than IY-Saya. Also Aki is not Saya, she inspires irritation rather than Sess's sympathy.

Oh! And I had a question as to whether _Return_ and _Innocence_ are actually connected. YES! All the characters here in _Innocence_ know what happened (for them it was about 6 years ago). So there are hints here as to details of what happens in _Return_ like obviously Sess will survive and regain his demonic powers (but we all kinda knew he was indestructible like that). Anyway...enough blabbing.

Disclaimer: I do not own them, but the kids are kinda mine.

Last Chapter: Master Dani turned his Chosen into cannibals, starting with the rebellious Kasai. Akisame met up with a wolf that spied on her while she was naked and then tried to pick a fight with her. But the wolf ran off after something scared him. He accused Aki of orchestrating the event, of ambushing him. Why? Because the youkai that scared him off was her uncle, Sesshomaru. Sesshy raced in with style and pinned Aki to a tree.

* * *

**Otooji**

The youkai stared at her through narrow, slitted eyes. He turned her one way and then the other as his golden eyes roved slowly from side to side and then down over her body. His gaze was cold, assessing her as if she were a hare caught in a trap he'd set.

Akisame stared back at him, her mouth open and gasping for air. His hand was powerful. His grip crushed her windpipe, closing it off. Yet because of his scent Akisame's hands had closed over his wrist. Her claws flexed into him, breaking the skin, but it was feeble. His scent confounded her. She knew that somehow he was her uncle. Her sharp nose could taste their relation, delving into it, picking it out. It stayed Akisame's hand, keeping her paralyzed with a counterproductive instinct as well as simple shock.

And then, suddenly, the youkai released her and took a step back as Akisame collapsed limply to the ground. She coughed and pawed at her throat, trying to breathe clearly again. She watched her uncle's shoes, steely-gray boots that managed to be immaculate in spite of the dust and the grass. The full breadth and magnitude of her _uncle's_ power began to settle on her, making the hair on Akisame's neck stand on edge.

Through her rough, harried breathing, Akisame heard the youkai address her. His voice was distant and calm, like water running smoothly down a mountainside. "What are you doing here? Where is Inuyasha?"

She knew that name—and yet she did not. Akisame gathered her strength and her courage and scrambled back from the youkai. She got to her feet but her head swam dizzily. She leaned on the tree and kept it between herself and the youkai. "Who?" she asked, panting.

The youkai turned and looked at her directly for a long moment. His golden eyes were crinkled at the corners, his lips had thinned slightly. He was thinking about what she'd asked, _hard._ Finally he said, "Your father. Do not attempt to deceive me."

_The white hair,_ Akisame stared at it, long and flowing down her uncle's shoulders. Her memories pushed at her. She saw the white haired man and the white haired boy. The man had her golden eyes…_My father._

"Why are you alone in my lands?" the youkai demanded. His eyes had not left her.

"Your lands?" Akisame asked, genuinely baffled. "I must've missed all the signs!"

The youkai's expression soured. Apparently he didn't appreciate her humor, but her words brought on a change in his stance with a small turn of his hips to regard her full-on. He even leaned to one side to stare at her around the tree trunk that she used as a flimsy barrier. "You do not know me?"

Akisame frowned and sniffed loudly, checking the inuyoukai's scent once more to be sure before she risked answering. "You're my uncle…?"

The inuyoukai's face blanked, and his eyes dulled, losing interest in her. "You do not know where Inuyasha is?"

Akisame's claws dug into the tree bark. She stayed motionless and looked away from the inuyoukai, pursing her lips. She tried to give him the impression that she was avoiding answering to keep Inuyasha's whereabouts hidden. It was becoming clear to her that the inuyoukai had known her, so he expected her to know where Inuyasha was. At the same time Akisame could still feel the pressure of his hard, strong hand around her throat. He could've killed her in the time it took him to draw a single breath. He might've been her uncle but he wasn't very friendly.

_These are his lands,_ she recalled. Perhaps he was as territorial as the wolves.

"Very well," the inuyoukai said. He started to turn his back on her but paused to ask her another question over his shoulder. "What is your name?"

_He's my uncle but he doesn't know my name! Some uncle!_ Akisame growled out her answer quickly without thinking. "It's Akisame—_otooji."_ (A/N: I think that's informal for Uncle. I usually use English but here I wanted Aki to rub Sess's nose in there a little and having her say Uncle didn't sound right. The Japanese term has more forms than ours and it sounds a lot less formal, which was what I wanted.)

The inuyoukai had begun walking away from her at a slow, smooth pace. "So you know your own name, I see. Yet you have managed to forget your father's name. Impressive."

Akisame's mouth fell open in astonishment. Then she bared her teeth in anger and embarrassment. "You did know my name." She pulled her head back to hide herself behind the tree and picked furiously at the bark. "Asshole," she grumbled.

"You are incorrect, I had forgotten it." The inuyoukai turned and pinned her with his sharp, narrowed golden eyes. "Follow me."

"No way," Akisame snarled. His power made the hair on her arms stand on end and he clearly didn't know her. He hadn't been an affectionate, close uncle. Was it possible that he was responsible for her memory loss? Was it possible that he had separated her from her family? Was he an enemy?

"I should have known," the inuyoukai murmured from the edge of the stream, some twenty feet away. Akisame had to strain her ears to hear it.

"Should've known what?" she growled.

"You are as stubborn as Inuyasha. The only thing you understand is a threat…"

His back was toward her but Akisame saw her uncle's arms move as he reached for his waist. She heard the slicing, ringing sound as he drew his sword.

She backed away from the tree, shaking her head in consternation. "Aren't you supposed to be my _uncle?_ What the hell's the matter with you?"

"I cannot protect you if you will not follow me." He lifted his sword up so that Akisame could see it over his shoulder. It shone brilliantly, bright and white like a tooth in the sun.

"Where are you going to take me?" Akisame demanded.

"To your father," her uncle replied, short and simple.

Akisame frowned. "I thought you didn't know where he was. How do I know I can trust anything you say, asshole?"

The inuyoukai sheathed his sword with a slick grating sound of metal on metal. He turned his head and his waist a little to be able to peer at her over his shoulder with one golden eye. "I owe your father a debt. I am repaying it now. If you follow me, we will find him—if he is still living."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Akisame blustered, paling with alarm. "I—I think I'd know if my family was dead. I'd remember shit like that!" The truth was that the idea struck her as likely. How else could she have ended up in a kitsune brothel? Yet somehow giving voice to the possibility that her family was dead made it more palpable. It set Akisame shaking and brought on a tightness in her chest.

"You do not know my name. You have no memories, just your name." The inuyoukai's words were like shrapnel, cutting into her, making her bleed.

"Shut the hell up! I'll never follow you anywhere, _otooji._ I'd rather claw out my eyeballs than listen to your shit!" Akisame growled and turned away from him, running back the way she had come, away from the little river. She had underestimated her uncle's powers of perception and he had managed to see right through her at every turn. He knew that she didn't really know who he was; he knew that she didn't know her father's name without his help. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know _who_ she really was.

A white streak flew up at her side, parallel to her at first but then it darted closer and collided with her. The blow tossed Akisame sideways. Her body flew into a piney bush that clogged her nose with its strong cedar scent. She coughed and sputtered. Between the green and brown branches covered with their spiky needles, Akisame saw her uncle's large blue-gray boots and the billowing pant legs of his white hakama.

"Bastard!" she hollered, spitting out the needles in her mouth and clawing at the debris in her long, wet black hair.

"You possess none of your mother's common sense," her uncle observed.

"What the fuck's your problem?" Akisame screamed, beginning to shake with her rage. "Leave me alone! What the fuck do you care about me? If my father is dead your debts don't mean a thing! Just do me a favor and get lost!"

"I owe your father only one debt," the inuyoukai corrected her, stiffly. "And if he has died I will fulfill it by protecting you."

His words gave Akisame pause. She sniffled and snorted, trying to clear her nose while she thought. Her brain was scrambled, troubled. The inuyoukai was her uncle and he had known her as well as her family. She already couldn't stand him but the idea of spending her life wandering alone; looking for her family for an eternity left her feeling empty and helpless. If they had died and she had forgotten it somehow, Akisame could search the entire Japanese archipelago in vain. And she would do it alone, vulnerable.

When she spoke again her voice was quieter, cautious. "What do you mean _protect me?_"

There was a pause and then her uncle answered, "I will adopt you."

"Adopt me?" she repeated, astounded at the idea. Her first thought was: _He'd make a horrible father!_

"Yes," he murmured. His boots shifted, moving to point in the direction she had been running before he'd tossed her into the bush. "Now follow me, Akisame."

His feet moved through the grass and disappeared from her view. Akisame blinked for a moment and then pawed at the pine bush's branches, clawing her way out. She brushed herself off when she emerged, taking the time to crunch on an ant that had crawled up her leg. When she had finished she glanced after her uncle and saw that he wasn't waiting for her this time. The inuyoukai's white robes and brilliant hair moved languidly through the shadows of the forest, pressing on along the path that Akisame had originally taken to find the small river. He was heading back the way she had come.

Akisame cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at him: "I already went that way!"

Her uncle didn't slow and didn't look back. Apparently he was aware of it and wasn't concerned.

Akisame sighed, grumbling to herself in a singsong falsetto. "Okay, _otooji. _I'll follow you anywhere, _otooji._"

* * *

The next meal that came in the late evening, the same red-brown cannibal soup brought no resistance from Master Dani's children. The parasite lingered over each of them, walking by and praising them as they drained the bowls, crying and gagging with terror and repulsion. They didn't dare try Kasai's plan of defiance again and Kasai didn't suggest it. The dethroned leader of the condemned Chosen sat in a corner on the filthy, blood-spattered floor, running away into her mind.

After darkness had fallen, sometime late in the night, Kasai woke groggily when she felt someone touching her hair. Alarmed, Kasai lashed out, snatching the arm. When she sat up she saw Kenpo in front of her. His mouth was surrounded by a halo of blood. A few spots of gore had been streaked by the passage of tears as they rolled down his face. The young monk was dry-eyed as he faced her now.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

The darkness inside Kasai, the insecure, doomed child, rose up to greet Kenpo bitterly. "None of us are okay. We're going to die."

Kenpo blinked once, hard. Then, in a shaking voice he said, "I know, but everyone dies."

Something in his tone, in the look on his face, told Kasai the deeper meaning behind Kenpo's words, the whole reason why he'd crawled over to talk to her in the middle of the night. Kasai released his hand and suddenly found herself shaking. Nausea grew in her gut, but it wasn't a physical illness, it was a blight of emotion, pounding into her stomach and her heart like a nail. Kenpo was right but Kasai resisted. "No, we can't do that."

Kenpo drew a long, ragged breath and closed his eyes. "My parents were gentle farmers. I left them because I was dissatisfied. If I had just stayed where I was I could be happy and safe with them. I never should've left. Now I…I've eaten human flesh. There's nothing I can do to redeem myself of that crime…"

Kasai shook her head vehemently. "No, it wasn't our choice. We were forced!" Her shoulder shook and she fought to keep herself from gagging. "I'm not a cannibal—none of us are. We are not monsters like Master Dani."

Kenpo stared at her through tired, hollow eyes. He said nothing and the silence propelled Kasai onward. She bit out the words defending herself and her soul, curling her lips with her bitter passion.

"We—we can't die here. If we die that bastard will just do this again and again until one of his Chosen hatches like a fucking egg. Then he wins. We can't let him win. We can't. I'm a demon slayer." She closed her eyes and repeated the words, trembling. "I'm a _demon slayer!"_

Her cursing had startled Kenpo into staring at her with attention, but his mood was unchanged. "If we stay alive he'll win."

Kasai's nostrils flared, she bit the insides of her cheeks. She kept her eyes closed.

"I saw it in your face when I woke you up. I saw it today when—" Kenpo stopped and choked, starting to sob. "When he made you kill the boy, I saw you make up your mind. Please, I don't want to die alone."

It was true. Kasai had accepted the idea of death in that moment, retreating into the chaos of her mind. But now she was contrary and stubborn. She wanted to see Master Dani die before she did. She wanted to leave the world knowing that the others were free and that she had succeeded as a demon slayer even while she was utterly alone and helpless. She had often been afraid of battles before an event, she had often wanted to turn away and run from an obstacle, but now she was in too deep and the coward in her had lost his strength, leaving just her will behind.

Kenpo in turn had succumbed.

"Don't do it," she told him, quivering. "Not yet."

"But there's no way out," Kenpo cried, shamelessly burying his face in his hands and letting his shoulders heave with his sobs.

Kasai leaned her head forward against his hair, smelling his sweat. She grimaced as she fought her own tears. "We just have to wait a little longer. We can't do it yet, Kenpo. Promise you won't?" Her voice began to shake, "I don't want to be stuck here suffering alone. Stay with all of us a little bit longer."

His answer was raspy like a dehydrated cat trying to meow. "Okay. I promise."

Kasai wrapped her arms around him and let her tears come as she steeled herself to that same resolve. On her closed eyelids she saw her father's face with his violet eyes and her mother with her brown hair and gentle, loving face. _If we wait just a little longer._ She thought of Kagome and then of a different image: white hair and dog ears, open and caring blue eyes and a smile that somehow made his canines appear _cute._

_I'll see them again,_ she promised herself. _It isn't over yet._

* * *

Sesshomaru backtracked over where his niece had traveled. His keen sense of smell and tracking knowledge guided him easily over the paths she had taken. Occasionally he paused to glance over his shoulder and wait for a sign or sound that Akisame was following him. The girl followed him at a great distance, literally hundreds of feet. It was a point of independence and authority apparently. She wanted to accept his help, but in a way that reminded him strongly of his stubborn younger brother, she was too proud to make it easy for either of them.

It was only a matter of hours before the sun had set and Sesshomaru was leading his niece through the dark. With the benefit of sight missing the girl had been forced to give up her stubborn distance. Now she followed him only about fifty feet back. At that distance they could see one another through the foliage and the dappled moonlight. They could also hear each other.

Half an hour after the sun had set, Akisame spoke, shouting to him, "How did you find me, _otooji?"_

Her voice startled Sesshomaru into blinking and stopping for a moment. He glanced up at the underside of the canopy and caught the starlight. The wind was picking up, moving in from the southeast. Sesshomaru sensed rain on it, perhaps a typhoon brewing in the southernmost parts of his land.

"Do not use that title," Sesshomaru ordered her.

"What?" Akisame asked, "You don't like it?" She snorted and started rambling wildly, "I'm not going to start calling you Father. Even if my dad is dead. _You can't replace him._ I can't remember him right now but I _know_ that…"

"Silence," Sesshomaru commanded her, allowing a note of irritation to enter his voice. She truly was just like Inuyasha, a fact that was beginning to make him pray that his brother wasn't dead. That way he could get rid of the girl. If he had to adopt her…he stopped himself from continuing the thought. _Ridiculous._

"Well then what am I supposed to call you?" Akisame demanded.

"Lord Sesshomaru," he told her and began walking again at a steady pace, picking up the trail.

They traveled on in silence for a time before Akisame repeated her earlier question, this time inserting his proper title, a detail that pleased him. "Lord Sesshomaru, how did you find me? I can't believe it was an accident."

"A fox came to me with a rumor that a close relative was imprisoned on the west coast."

Akisame made a huffing noise, apparently unhappy with his answer in some way, but Sesshomaru made no attempt to find out why. The fox that had delivered the message had been a foolish, opportunistic beast. He had served Sesshomaru's youngest daughter Hanone as well as his mother in the Kosetsu. That experience with Sesshomaru's close, blood relatives had given the kitsune the authority to identify a relative like Akisame by scent. He'd seen her and left immediately to draw payment from Sesshomaru for the news. Normally Sesshomaru might not have wasted much time with the news because all of _his_ daughters were accounted for.

But he owed Inuyasha a debt, undoubtedly.

He paid the fox for the location and had set out less than a day ago, only to encounter his niece already escaped and inside his lands. Now he couldn't wait to find his brother and get rid of her.

The wind shifted after they descended a steep hill. In the depths of the valley the airflow brought Sesshomaru the scent of what was ahead of him. Before, while they had traveled in the higher elevations the wind had swept their scents northward, in the general direction of their traveling. Normally, like a predator, Sesshomaru kept the wind to his front side if he could, sweeping his scent backward and bringing him the smells of the world ahead. While he walked with Akisame, however, he'd worked to advertise his presence by keeping the wind at his back.

His hope was that Inuyasha was not far behind his daughter. If that suspicion proved accurate than Inuyasha would've surely picked out their scents using the wind. He would follow it, drawn by both Sesshomaru and Akisame's scents. If Inuyasha failed to appear that meant he was not within a certain distance and Sesshomaru would have to change tactics.

He would take Akisame back to the Western Lands and house her in one of his castles while he sent out hired servants and searched more extensively on his own. The idea of taking Akisame back to one of his castles disturbed Sesshomaru. He didn't want Saya exposed to his brother's daughter. She was bound to adore Akisame and she would probably mimic her when she heard the way Akisame talked. And of course there would be no way he could keep Saya from her cousin short of hiding the other girl…

Sesshomaru stopped when the scents in his next inhalation reached him. Relief made the muscles around his mouth flicker. He turned at the waist to stare back at Akisame to see if she had noticed the wind change. The girl had stopped where she was in a patch of darkness. Her face was lost in the blackness with her already very dark hair.

"What?" she asked.

"We will wait here," Sesshomaru told her.

"Why?"

Sesshomaru turned slowly back to face the wind, inhaling again. He picked out more details and his face rippled with a mixture of displeasure and relief. "Your father is coming."

"Really?" Akisame rushed forward, snapping twigs and brushing loudly against saplings and drooping tree branches. She paused a few feet from Sesshomaru's side and stared up at him. A narrow patch of moonlight fell over her right eye, wavering as the shadow-leaves that intercepted the milky light moved in the breeze above in the canopy. Sesshomaru saw his niece's eye compress as she smiled. The white of her teeth also showed out starkly against the nighttime. "Thanks," she told him.

"Do not leave yet," Sesshomaru warned her. He wasn't ready to turn his niece over blindly. Something had disrupted her memory. If Inuyasha had been similarly affected or brainwashed he might actually kill his daughter.

She hesitated, frowning. Her golden eye, illuminated by the moon, glowed like coals in a fire. Sesshomaru was surprised when she didn't ask why and didn't disobey him.

Sounds came through the forest. Branches and leaves rustling at first, then feet pounding the earth. Figures appeared. Two shapes leapt through the tree branches like giant squirrels. A third figure was a fox, light gray in the dark with an uplifted, fluffy tail.

The fox lifted its head and its eyes glowed bright yellow.

At Sesshomaru's side Akisame made a small noise as she inhaled sharply, staring as the shapes drew closer. Sesshomaru watched her out of the corner of his eye, lightly amused.

"Aki!" Inuyasha's voice rang out, hoarse with his desperation. "Aki!"

At a certain distance, about fifteen feet, Inuyasha came to a halt. The fox came a little closer, daring as most foxes were. The second shape, a smidgen shorter than Inuyasha but otherwise identical from their distance and in the cover of the dark, Sesshomaru recognized as the elder of his brother's children. What was the boy's name? It was something silly that barely seemed fitting for the grandson of Inutaisho, but as Sesshomaru recalled the boy was very gentle, rather like his mother the miko and that made the name appropriate…

"Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha shouted, growling. "What the hell's going on here?"

Akisame started to step forward but Sesshomaru moved with amazing speed, putting himself between Akisame and her father. His hair was a flash of brightness in the dark. Akisame cried out in surprise and then started growling. Except for the feminine pitch of her voice Akisame's growl was identical to Inuyasha's. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded.

"I must ask a few questions," Sesshomaru said, answering both his brother and his niece with the words.

"Aki!" Inuyasha yelled, "Fillet his ass…"

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said, lifting his head and narrowing his eyes. "I must determine that you are in fact yourself before I can allow the child to go to you."

"I am _not_ a child!" Akisame snarled, bristling at what she perceived as an insult.

Inuyasha's ears laid flat as he lost his patience. He lowered himself to the ground and Sesshomaru saw a shape detach itself from him. It was a lithe form, a human woman with a long ponytail running down her back. Sesshomaru had already known that the demon slayer was with them by scent, but seeing her relieved him.

"What the hell are you talking about, Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha demanded once he had gotten back to his feet. The demon slayer at his side had shrugged off her boomerang weapon, readying herself and it for a potential fight. Inuyasha, however, made no move for Tetsusaiga and his ears flicked nervously when the slayer prepared her weapon. Any strike at Sesshomaru could also harm Akisame.

"Several years ago," Sesshomaru began in a calm, bland tone, explaining himself. "You rescued my daughter. You would not relinquish her to anyone but myself. Today I am repaying that debt. Before I allow her to leave my protection I must be sure of your identity."

"Fuck this," Inuyasha growled. "Did you get dirt in your nose? Or did you lose your sense of smell back when you lost your kid too?"

Sesshomaru stiffened at the insult but held himself firmly. He had little doubt that Inuyasha was truly himself, but he wanted to make a point of being sure and of letting his brother know that they were even. The score had been settled.

Akisame butted her head into his knees, momentarily making Sesshomaru step forward, wobbling. In that second she made a mad dash for her father. "Dad!"

Inuyasha lurched forward, low to the ground, sprinting like a greyhound after a rabbit. "Aki!" Though the demon slayer maintained her distance, Inuyasha's son moved forward with the same desperation that drove his father and the fox winked out of existence, teleporting.

Sesshomaru regained control of the situation before any of them could reach Akisame. He leapt over Akisame before she had traveled more than ten feet and gently knocked her backward with one leg. Akisame squeaked with surprise and fell over into the thick grass, coughing. The kitsune materialized in front of Sesshomaru in his boyish form and gaped up at the inuyoukai lord with shock. He'd intended to catch Akisame and teleport her back to Inuyasha and the others, but he hadn't moved fast enough and Sesshomaru had gotten in his way.

The kit scrambled backward and collided with Inuyasha's son. The two adolescents fell in a heap, shouting and squabbling comically. Inuyasha halted just behind them and cursed, tense and growling.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru called, calmly. "The child cannot truly remember you. She did not even know your name when I found her."

"Hey!" Akisame cried, immediately embarrassed by her uncle's words.

Sesshomaru ignored her. "Now that I have returned her to you I have repaid my debt to you."

"Is that your beef? Whatever you old bastard, we're even," Inuyasha shouted. "Just let Aki go."

"Of course," Sesshomaru said. He sidestepped, leaving Akisame's path open.

The girl briefly looked to Sesshomaru, glaring cautiously, then she sprang forward, closing the distance between herself and Inuyasha's group. Sesshomaru watched their reunion with a dispassionate gaze. Inwardly his brain skirted around a fragile memory, unclear and disturbing. The joy he heard and saw as Inuyasha wrapped his arms around his daughter, crushing her to him, forced him to recall the power of his own emotions, once upon a time…

Inuyasha's ears were quivering atop his head. His son moved in and joined in the hug, but the boy was openly making a sound that was somewhere between light laughing and crying with relief. The fox moved around them with his puffy tail twitching, grinning.

Then the demon slayer lifted her voice, shattering the scene, tossing them all back into reality. "Lord Sesshomaru," she called, addressing him formally and catching his attention immediately. "Your debt to Inuyasha may be filled but my family helped return your daughter to you as well. You owe us a debt too. Akisame was not the only victim here. My daughter has also been taken, and Kagome is still missing too." She stepped forward, slinging her boomerang over her shoulder as she approached. She knelt and started to bow while Inuyasha and the others stared at her with surprise. "I plead for your help. Please, honor your debt to my family too and help me search for my daughter and Kagome."

Sesshomaru paused, fighting a frown. When he'd set out after Akisame he'd counted on a swift resolution and he'd gotten one. Now a different journey laid before him and his obligations to it were flimsy. As much as he admired the demon slayer for her audacity, he wasn't interested in helping her and the claim that he was indebted to her family too was absurd.

"There is no such debt between us," Sesshomaru told her, coldly.

She pressed on, looking up at him with desperation. "Without my family's help your daughter would've died on the coast. Inuyasha never would've gone if not for my family's presence. You owe both of our families, Lord Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru bristled at the growing authority in her tone. "There is no debt. The pact between Inuyasha and my wife concerned _our_ family only. I am not bound to protect your kin."

"But Kagome is missing as well—" the slayer stammered, but Sesshomaru interrupted her.

"She is Inuyasha's mate and his responsibility. She is not _my kin."_

The slayer shook her head, refusing to give in, "But—"

Inuyasha got to his feet and called to her in a rough, solemn voice. "Leave him alone, Sango. He's right. Rin made him promise to protect _my_ kids, and me to protect his."

Akisame suddenly asked, "_He has kids? Wait!_ Did you promise to adopt his kids if he was dead?"

Inuyasha nodded with a frown. "Yeah, that was part of it."

Akisame growled and turned to glare at her uncle. "Asshole! And I thought you were actually a nice guy!"

Sesshomaru ignored her and turned to leave. When his back was turned on the group he paused to call in a gentle voice to Sango. "Slayer, go home and rest. You should not be traveling in your condition. My little brother will surely find your daughter if she is with his mate."

He started to walk off, ignoring the grumbling he heard behind him. It had never been in his nature to become unnecessarily involved in his brother's life. Part of him regretted turning down the demon slayer, but it was not his problem and not his fault and he had no obligatory ties to it. He had saved Inuyasha's daughter from the wolf youkai and repaid his debt. Now he had the Western Lands to attend to, rounds to be made. He had to bring Saya to visit the Kosetsu to see his mother and Hanone and Ginrei too if she was there—to see how her pregnancy was going and whether the child was healthy…

* * *

Miroku and Kohimu split apart the group. Kohimu, who was more than old enough to be considered an adult, led Tisoki and Nobe heading due west. Miroku changed direction and headed southwest with Masuyo and Kagome.

Kohimu used Tisoki and Nobe to question villagers and passersby, searching for any news of a giant seabird or of the missing women. Their lead, in fact everything they had to go on, came from Kagome. Kasai was seemingly north on the west coast, near the human city of Niigata possibly. They headed that way and passed through the villages, asking everyone they saw about all the nearest shrines and temples.

Though Tisoki had a wandering eye and often singled out young women to question rather than men, the group made no detours and wasted little time. Kohimu drove them on with as much ferocity as Inuyasha. In their first night on the road, sleeping under the stars, Kohimu initiated Nobe into the demon slayer's oldest trait: carving youkai bones into valuable figurines, combs, and weapons. After a small meal of bland rice they bedded down and tried to sleep for the few hours that Kohimu would allow.

Nobe nursed a few scrapes he'd given himself while trying to carve. He faced Tisoki while they lied still, trying to sleep. After a time Nobe whispered to Tisoki, making the older youth open his eyes and blink at him. "What?"

"Tell me about who we're going to rescue?" Nobe asked. He'd tried to find out from Kohimu but the eldest of Miroku's sons had no time to explain it to him yet.

"Well," Tisoki began, lowering his voice, "there was Kagome but you met her. We need to find Kasai, that's our younger sister. And then there's our mother, the best demon slayer of them all and a girl named Akisame, Kagome's daughter."

"What happened to them all?" Nobe asked, utterly perplexed.

"We killed a half-demon named Iruka on the east coast. It turned out her father, the whale demon Hakugei decided to punish us for it. He sent all of the girls to the opposite side of Japan."

"Why just the women?" Nobe asked.

"The half-demon only killed and ate men and boys. It was no match for my mother and the other girls though. That was why Hakugei punished them," Tisoki sighed heavily, his shoulders moving with the effort.

"Is that why Kohimu's so grouchy?" Nobe sat up a little, peeking over Tisoki's form to where Kohimu was sleeping, motionless and silent several feet away.

Tisoki chuckled. "Big Brother is always grouchy. It's mostly because he is our big brother, but right now I think he feels bad about Kasai, our little sister. He was always mean to her because Dad likes her so much."

"He's jealous," Nobe guessed.

"Probably but it's stupid really. All it does is make everyone feel rotten about it." Tisoki yawned loudly and closed his eyes. "Go to sleep, Nobe. Big Brother wants to reach the coast tomorrow and pass through Niigata by sundown."

Nobe nodded. "Okay."

A few feet away, Kohimu was awake, lying as motionlessly as he could, scarcely breathing. How foolish could his brother and Nobe be to assume that he was sleeping? Kohimu tried to work up his anger, but the effort only fatigued him. Tisoki was right about everything—almost. He had spent a good deal of his life jealous of Kasai because their father adored her as his only daughter. But in the more recent years he had lost a lot of his jealousy as he realized that he had a lot to offer, he was talented, and he hadn't inherited his father's lechery. His view of Kasai had changed from a simple spoiled brat to a confused girl more worthy of his pity and nurture. Yet changing his behavior was _hard_ to do. The only way he knew to nurture his younger siblings was to be harsh with them, to show them how it was done.

He ended up crushing them more than anything else. Before they had parted, Miroku had taken a moment to offer Kohimu a last bit of advice:_ "When you see Koinu again you might try observing the way he treats his sister…_" As much as Kohimu resented the idea, he had to admit that Kagome and Inuyasha's children could fight and pick at each other and still turn around moments later to share a fear or a secret or a laugh. It was the relationship Kohmu had with Tisoki, but it existed between brother and sister with their polar opposite personalities. If Koinu could do it, Kohimu could, right?

But if Kasai was dead, he would never have the chance…

* * *

Next time:

_Lurching toward the shutters, Kasai forced them open wide. It was a small space but Kasai knew she could fit through it. She hauled herself up into it and threw herself over. The priestesses were rushing after her, their feet pounding the tatami matting. Kasai let gravity take her to the ground. _

_She landed hard. The blow knocked the air out of her lungs and she coughed, trying to catch her breath. There was grass under her palms, against her calves, her feet, and her cheeks. Kasai's eyes stung with joyous tears. _


	22. Immunity

A/N: I am making an effort to shorten my chapters. For these stories that's tough because there are multiple places to cover, but oh well. Phew. I enjoyed writing the next chapter a great deal. Hehe...you'll see why at the end. It required some research...and since the next chapter is already written I included more of a preview for it.

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Aki returned to IY. Kenpo and Kasai discussed suicide but Kasai fought the decision, postponing it. Sess refused to help Sango. (I left some cryptic hints for you as to how _Return _will end last chapter too). And Kohimu, Tisoki, and Nobe struck out on their own while Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo are headed to ask for Sess's help.

**Immunity**

The door to their tiny prison room rolled open, clattering on the wooden floor. Kasai jumped awake at it and blinked. As consciousness returned she moaned and gagged, breathing hard. Her vision had blurred and her innards twisted ominously. Yet through the feelings of illness, a more disturbing sensation came. It was a twitch in her back, on her spine.

Tingles, nerve-impulses, spurted up and down her limbs, making her fingers and toes twitch spasmodically. She looked around blearily and found that Kenpo was lying at her side, grimacing. She stared down at his hand, lying near her face, and saw it twitch with the same movements.

"Ah, what a fine morning, my children," Master Dani greeted them. He inhaled, as if the air were sweet inside the little prison. In reality it was a festering place filled with old vomit, human blood and waste. It was an unclean morgue, a place of rotting.

"Today we must go out and meet our disciples, my Chosen." Master Dani grinned and brought his hands up. He clapped and other young monks and priestesses stepped past his bulk, squeezing into the room. Their faces tensed, pinched like dried fruit as they took one look and one whiff at the state of the room and of the four people inside it. "Let's get them cleaned up now!" Master Dani called, smiling broadly.

Kasai found she could barely move as two young priestesses leaned over her and grabbed her arms and legs. They lifted her like a sack of grains and grunted as they hauled her out of the room. Kasai closed her eyes and let her head loll while they carried her, too weak to fight. The priestesses set her down a few minutes later and began pulling on her bloodied, soiled clothing.

Disturbed by what they were doing, Kasai opened her eyes and tried to fight them. The girls overpowered her and stripped her. Eventually Kasai gave in and used her energy to examine the room instead. She recognized it as the main hall where Master Dani had first poisoned his Chosen ones and kissed her, Kenpo, Hato, and Osore. Now there were four massive, wooden tubs laid out and steaming with hot water.

_He's bathing us,_ Kasai realized. She welcomed the wood floor beneath her, which was clean and only dusty smelling, thankful to have escaped the tortuous little room.

The priestesses gripped Kasai by her underarms and grunted, heaving her up from the floor. Kasai found the strength to move her legs to climb into the tub. The water enveloped her and as the comfort of that clean, soothing touch surrounded her, the words she had shared with Kenpo the night before returned.

As the priestess girls reached in and scrubbed at her shoulders, Kasai stared down at the water and began to shake. Her reflection rippled on the water's surface, cloudy through the steam. She saw the trails of old dried blood running alongside her mouth and the tears began to dribble out of her eyes. She found the self-hatred, her fears of failure and the shortcomings she perceived in herself as having been born _female,_ and used them to fuel her hands as she scrubbed viciously at her own face.

_I'll die clean at least…_

A splashing sound made her look up and see the little girl Hato falling clumsily into the tub on Kasai's left. Hato was crying as usual and shaking. Two other priestesses attended Hato, supporting her and wetting cloths to scrub her with. Kasai glanced right and saw Kenpo stand upright, stark naked with his back facing her.

For the first time since she'd become aware of sex, Kasai turned away, suddenly fighting tears. She had never known sexual intimacy and now she probably never would.

The priestesses poured scented oil into Kasai's water and then rubbed their hands in it and took hold of Kasai's hair. It was time for them to wash the grit and gore from Kasai's long black hair. Kasai stared at the water as it began to foam with the soaps and oils. The soothing, clean smells filled her nose, comforting her—but the water was darkening, turning pink and steadily darkening as Kasai fouled its purity.

_I'll cooperate with them and duck below the water to wash out the soaps. I won't hold my breath at all; I'll just open up and take in the water. It won't hurt, it will be quick, and it will be clean…_

She glanced to Kenpo as the priestesses worked their small, bony fingers into her hair. Kenpo's head was bowed so low that his nose nearly touched the water. His eyes were closed. Kasai thought she saw drops of water, tears from his eyes, but it could've been soap from his scalp. _Is he going to do it too?_ She remembered his words; _I don't want to die alone…_

"Kenpo," she called to him, her voice croaking.

The young monk looked up, blinking around the lathered soap in his dark hair. He didn't speak but his eyes told her that he was thinking the same thing that she was. She was about to turn away and do it, sink beneath the water and give up, but Kenpo spoke then, surprising her. He said, "A little longer."

Kasai stared back down at the water. It was a light brown red now, but it still smelled pleasant. She swallowed hard and felt the unending nausea broiling in her gut. _I made Kenpo promise and now I want to go back on it. I'm so weak, so stupid…_

Her mind jumped between her choices, torn. Her reflective image stared up at her with its jaw trembling.

_I never said goodbye to my family. I never loved a man. I'll never get to hold my own babies. I'll never feel grass under my feet again. I'll never feel the weight of my sword, or the wind in my hair, or hear my father's voice._

Though she contemplated death as an escape, Kasai could only find reasons why she wanted to live on.

The priestesses pushed on her head and Kasai closed her eyes and lowered her head beneath the water. She held her breath and felt the priestesses' fingers moving through her hair, forcing the soaps out of it. When her lungs called for air she surfaced and pawed at her nose and her eyes, clearing them as she breathed. She turned and watched Kenpo resurface as well, dripping. _A little longer,_ she thought and nodded.

After the bath the priestesses helped Kasai out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel. They guided her, dripping all the way, down a different hall and into a small, cubicle-like room. They closed the door behind her and sat her down in the middle of the room on a fresh, clean smelling tatami mat.

The bath had rejuvenated Kasai and she watched the priestesses' faces as they worked. There were bruised marks on their necks. Master Dani had bitten them but they were still active and able. The priestesses wrapped her hair in the towel, leaving Kasai sitting naked and exposed for a moment while they moved to the wall and pulled out a hidden drawer with kimono inside.

Kasai shivered and held herself, covering her breasts. She gazed at the window shutters and felt her heart pick up suddenly. _The window…_

The priestesses came back to her and helped her stand up. Kasai's knees wobbled but she stayed upright, watching the window fixatedly. The priestesses pulled on a bright, silken under robe of white and tied it with a small, narrow strip of decorative red fabric. As soon as they had done that and left for the drawer for the rest of the kimono, Kasai made her move.

Lurching toward the shutters, Kasai forced them open wide. It was a small space but Kasai knew she could fit through it. She hauled herself up into it and threw herself over. The priestesses were rushing after her, their feet pounding the tatami matting. Kasai let gravity take her to the ground.

She landed hard. The blow knocked the air out of her lungs and she coughed, trying to catch her breath. There was grass under her palms, against her calves, her feet, and her cheeks. Kasai's eyes stung with joyous tears.

Kasai got up and squinted in the brightness of the sunshine. The towel that had held her hair up slipped off, letting the wet strands fall and move freely in the breeze. The sun was low in the east, it was very early morning.

Barefoot, Kasai hurried away from the building. Gardens opened up before her, blooming with flowers, arrangements of stones and mosses, twisting bonsai trees and cheerful cherry and plum trees. A monk was knelt in one of the little moss arrangements, plucking weeds out of the plots of dirt between the moss. He glanced up and gaped at Kasai when he saw her.

"Which way is out?" Kasai asked him, barely coherent. The thing flickered on her spine again and Kasai cried out as her toes and fingers began to twitch. She stumbled forward, rubbing her knees in the white kimono along the grass.

The monk stared at her dumbly, unable to comprehend the sight of a woman not wearing the garb of a priestess.

"Which way is out?" Kasai repeated, stupidly. She pawed at her neck, afraid of feeling the familiar controlling pain there, and looked up at the monk. As she stared at him, Kasai felt something strange growing within her. Her stomach swelled with a stabbing, bitter hunger, her mouth made chewing motions _against her will_ and the hand that wasn't on her neck had fallen to the ground and was _reaching_ for the monk…

_No…_

"Are you all right?" the monk asked. He started to come closer.

"No!" Kasai turned away from him and tried to get onto her feet again, but now her muscles cramped up and she tumbled forward, putting more grass stains on her white under robe. She stayed still on the grass, panting and fighting the _thing_ inside her. "No, no—I'd rather die…"

The grass in front of her squished down as a bristled, sandaled foot landed in front of her face. Master Dani's voice came above her, "You are a stubborn one, my child."

"I'm not…" she lost track of what she'd wanted to say as Master Dani grabbed her up by her hair. She cried out with pain and forced her legs up underneath her.

"What a shame, you've ruined your under robe with grass stains. We don't have any spares. You'll have to wear this stained one to worship for now unless your sister dies." Master Dani made a face at her, displeased. Then he knelt and scooped her into his arms.

Kasai squirmed but her strength had departed. She watched helplessly as her fingers and toes twitched with a life of their own. The _thing_ Master Dani had forced her to swallow, it was growing and it was _taking over her._

Suddenly, Kasai regretted holding her breath in the tub. _If I had drowned, it would have drowned with me._

And yet the grass stains all over her white under robe gave her hope. They were tangible signs that she had nearly escaped. She had momentarily regained her right to live free and under the sun.

* * *

After Sesshomaru had left them, Inuyasha, Koinu, Shippo, Sango, and now finally Akisame too spent the rest of the night in a clearing not far from the spot in the woods where they had initially encountered the lord of the Western Lands. The clearing was on the mountainside, overlooking the mountains peaks and valleys stretching off to the flat plains before the Sea of Japan in the west. It was a rocky place, affording them little sleep.

The youngest members of the group fought the desire to sleep for a time, rejoicing in Akisame's return to them. Sango collapsed, sleeping almost immediately after they reached the clearing. While finding Akisame was a triumph, Sango had also suffered a defeat. Sesshomaru had dismissed her cruelly and now she faced finding her daughter alone. Her loss was also Inuyasha's because Sesshomaru had refused to help them find Kagome too. Sango and Inuyasha slept nearby one another and by some kind of miracle managed to ignore all the noise that Shippo, Koinu, and Akisame made.

"How could you forget me?" Koinu asked his sister in a hissing voice, both amused and hurt at once.

"Well I had a lot of other shit on my mind!" Akisame gestured weakly, fuming. She changed the subject by stabbing a finger at Shippo. "Some cousin of yours tried to fucking rape me." Her golden eyes took on a dark, menacing look as she relived the encounter in her memories.

Shippo blinked, startled. "I'm—I'm sorry, Aki…"

"Aki," Koinu whispered her name, staring at her with a pained expression. When she turned to face him Koinu shook his head and frowned bitterly. "Father and I failed you. We were out hunting when the seabird took you. I feel like it's my fault, all of this. If I hadn't let Iruka lure me out of the fish hut the night before…"

"Oh shut up," Akisame said, sighing. "It wasn't anyone's fault." A smug look passed over her face and she smirked cleverly at her brother. "Tell you what though; I'll forgive you if you have to insist that it's all your fault if you give me _Izoukago."_

Koinu smiled at her, openmouthed and revealing his canines, bright in the dark. "Okay, it's a deal." He pulled on the ties at his waist, loosening the small sword. As he worked Akisame took note that _Izoukago_ wasn't the only sword at his waist.

As Koinu handed over the sword, Akisame pointed to the other blade. "Is that Kasai's sword?"

Koinu nodded. "Yeah, _Burikko._ When we find Kasai I'll give it to her."

"Hah!" Akisame laughed. "Cute." While Koinu frowned at her for the belittling, Akisame lifted Izoukago and unsheathed it slowly. She turned the blade around and stared into the glimmering, silvered reflection of her face. Her golden eyes peered back at her, bright and alert. Akisame grinned into the sword's reflective surface triumphantly. "I found out I don't need a sword to fry a fox."

Shippo moved, tensing at her words as if he considered them a threat. The kit's species loyalty could be questioned at times but he did remain a fox so a part of him bristled at Akisame's words. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Akisame sheathed the blade, making it clatter loudly. She lowered the sword back into her lap and her expression clouded. One moment she had been gloating, the next she was uncertain. She examined Shippo for a moment and then her shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry Shippo, it's just hard for me to smell you because of what happened. That fucking fox and all…"

"No," Koinu murmured, catching her attention. "It's okay, Aki. Shippo knows you didn't mean anything really."

"As long as you don't fry me, yeah," Shippo smiled tentatively and his puffy tail twitched behind him. Then suddenly his green eyes widened with surprise. He remembered lifting the fox skull from the remains of what Sango had said was the brothel. He turned to Akisame and his voice dropped into a harsh whisper. "Aki, did you _purify_ the foxes?"

Akisame shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I inherited Mom's powers but not Dad's. I can't handle the Tetsusaiga worth anything."

Koinu's ears fell flat atop his head. He and Shippo exchanged quick glances with one another, perplexed and alarmed to discover what they'd _thought_ they'd seen in the remains of the brothel had in fact been correct.

Akisame watched their reactions and lost her patience. "Okay, someone talk. What's going on here? What's with the funny looks?"

Shippo answered her, slowly. "Aki, you're a quarter inuyoukai. It should be impossible to inherit Kagome's powers…"

"What?" Akisame interrupted, bristling, "You don't believe me? I purified them. I've seen Mom do it before. That purple fire-light…"

"No, we believe you, Aki," Koinu told her. His ears were still drooping on top of his head, hinting at his miserable mood. "We just don't understand it because…" Koinu paused and his shoulders sagged, as if ashamed of the admission, "I did it too. I did it without meaning to in my sleep. But it shouldn't be possible. It should've purified me at least."

"You still had your ears?" Akisame asked. When her brother nodded solemnly in answer she bit her lip, trying to think about this latest bit of evidence. "Well, I was gonna say that since I look _mostly_ human then maybe I could have Mom's power too, but if you've got it I'm out of ideas."

"Well," Shippo began, "maybe you've developed an immunity or something. We used to run into demons that were immune to spiritual attack all the time. Most demons aren't immune, but there are exceptions to every rule." Shippo paused and then chuckled darkly. "I'll bet if those foxes had known about you Aki they never would've laid a finger on you…"

Suddenly Sango sat up from where she'd been sleeping. "What did you just say, Shippo?"

All three of them turned and stared at Sango in surprise. An uncertain silence followed during which Inuyasha made a snorting sound in his sleep and muttered a name they all knew immediately: "Se-o-maru…"

Timidly, Shippo repeated what he'd said, "The foxes wouldn't have taken Akisame if they'd known about her power—but how _could_ they have? I mean it's weird because demons can be immune to the power but they don't _use it…"_

Sango was staring at the ground between herself and the snoring, mumbling Inuyasha. Her face was pinched tightly as she thought. At last she sighed and ran her hand over her face in a gesture that hinted at defeat or resignation. "I should've known…"

"What is it, Aunt Sango?" Koinu asked her, using respectful, formal words.

"Shippo's right, it makes perfect sense." She turned slightly to face them, engaging herself in their new conversation. "I've been wondering where Kagome and Kasai would be and I just couldn't wrap my head around it—who would want two women with spiritual powers? Is it possible Hakugei gave Kasai and Kagome to humans? Then I heard Shippo talk about youkai with immunities to spiritual attack and the answer was right there all along. Hakugei split Akisame and I apart from Kasai and Kagome because of spiritual powers. Some demons aren't just _immune_ to spiritual energy, they _feed_ on it."

Sango lifted her shaking hands up and covered her face with them, as if ashamed. "I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. Miroku almost died because of a demon like that once…"

"Sango," Koinu murmured, sadly. "It's okay, don't blame yourself."

"We have to go," Sango announced, wiping below her eyes as if she had cried, but the three youngsters couldn't make out any sign of tears. "We'll have to go through every village asking about missing monks, priests, and priestesses. Shippo, you should pose as a monk and Akisame, we could dress you like a priestess and no one would guess that it wasn't true…"

"Sango!" Shippo called, "Calm down!"

The demon slayer started to get to her feet but stopped. Her body tensed and then she began to quiver like a plucked guitar string. A small sound escaped her lips, a little whimper of pain.

"Sango?" Koinu asked, concern deepening his voice.

She sat back down but her shaking had not ceased. Her hands came slowly over her middle and grasped at her abdomen. She bared her teeth, an obvious expression of pain and discomfort.

"Is it the baby?" Shippo asked. He sprang forward, getting into Sango's personal space. "What's wrong? I don't smell anything wrong yet, Sango. Are you okay?" he jabbered.

Koinu moved over to Inuyasha and pushed on his shoulder. Inuyasha flared his teeth at his son and slapped at his hand. "Go," he growled.

"Dad!" Koinu yelled. In his exasperation he dropped the proper, respectful titling that Inuyasha usually held him to and that combined with his urgent tone, snapped Inuyasha into wakefulness.

"What?" he sat up, his ears flicking to and fro while his eyes roved around the area, searching for trouble. He sniffed at the wind, "What the hell's going on now?"

"It's Sango," Koinu told him. His ears laid flat atop his head and his jaw tensed with worry.

Inuyasha twisted around to look at the demon slayer and frowned. "Sango?"

She was breathing slow and evenly where she sat with her eyes closed, as if she were trying to mediate like Miroku had twenty years ago. "I'm fine, Inuyasha," she assured him.

"The look on your face sure says otherwise," the hanyou replied, scowling. "Shit. You can't sleep on these fucking rocks." He growled to himself and looked around at Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo. "Sango, will you be okay if we move you now? We'll rest up in a village for awhile until you're feeling better…"

"No," Sango shook her head stubbornly. "We can't afford to wait. I've figured out how to look for Kasai and Kagome." She turned her head to face him only, a difficult feat that made her wince as she strained her neck muscles. "Inuyasha, they've got to be with a demon that preys on spiritual powers…"

Inuyasha looked for a moment as if he'd been slugged in the back of the head. Then his expression hardened and he turned his gaze on Akisame. His daughter averted her eyes, trying to shrink out of sight to avoid the pain she saw in her father's stare. "If they're with a demon like that they're already dead, Sango," he murmured.

"No," Sango shook her head. "Some of them take longer than others. There are different types. And Kagome was always more than a match for any of them. Kagome would protect Kasai so we still have time…"

Inuyasha closed his eyes and drew in a long, deep breath. "Okay then. Let's go, kids. We've got to get moving."

* * *

Finding Sesshomaru in his own lands was harder than Miroku ever would've guessed. As he, Kagome, and Masuyo passed through the villages and questioned other travelers along the road, it became increasingly obvious that the humans were far removed from their inuyoukai lord. They always asked the same question: Where was Sesshomaru's castle? They got a wide variety of answers.

They had been traveling for a day to reach the Western Lands, but now on their second day they found themselves in unfamiliar territory and without a guide. Inuyasha had been to Sesshomaru's castle a few times and if he had been with them they might've found it without any trouble going off of the hanyou's memory. Without him they had to rely on human knowledge.

"Nejiro," was the first thing they heard, but two feet away another person disputed that answer and offered up, "Jouka Palace," instead. When Miroku asked at a later spot whether Sesshomaru could be found at Nejiro or at Jouka Palace the man laughed at them and said that Jouka had burned down years ago.

"We need Shippo," Kagome said.

Miroku stopped in mid-step and laughed lightly, chuckling. "Of course, why didn't I think of that?"

"But Shippo went with Uncle Inuyasha," Masuyo pointed out.

"Yes but foxes are easily manipulated." Miroku pulled out some of the money that the Kishokachi lords had paid Kohimu for delivering Iruka's head to them. When he and Kohimu had parted ways Miroku had divided up the sum evenly. Now he patted the little purse and tugged it over his wrist, tying it onto his robes.

They moved through the little bordertown, Sakaime. It was caught between two, technically _three_ lands. Sakaime was mainly claimed by the ruler of the Middle Lands, Lord Shimofuri, but it was also on the border with the Western Lands and it was close to the disputed province of the Isei. It was the perfect place for rumors and legends to fly and warp, becoming unrecognizable. The people of Sakaime had heard that Jouka had burned. Others had heard that it was burned and rebuilt. Others still hadn't heard about the fire at all. All of them knew who Sesshomaru was as surely as they knew that the sun rose in the east and set in the west, but beyond that their knowledge grew sketchy.

The foxes, however, would know. It was their _duty _to know, it was how they made their living, trading in secrets and rumors.

"Shippo says the foxes in the Middle Lands are strongly loyal to Lord Shimofuri—but they probably don't mind giving out information about Sesshomaru," Kagome said.

It wasn't long before they spotted a fox. He was sitting at the edge of the marketplace, watching the humans pass by and trade with bright yellow eyes. Although the fox was identical in size and shape to an ordinary wild fox, his fearlessness of humans and his demonic aura gave him away. Miroku and Kagome approached the fox slowly but with confidence. Masuyo moved with Kagome behind him to prevent the fox from making an unexpected move like stealing Kagome away, which was a common trick a fox used when he was bored or perhaps aroused.

This fox appeared untroubled by their approach. He was a dark gray in color with a massive, puffy tail that curled over the ground behind him like an enormously fat but short snake. When Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo had come within fifteen feet of him the fox abandoned his wild-fox deception with a shake of his head. His form instantly lengthened, stretching out until he was about five-feet tall, still short for a demon.

Humans stopped and gaped at the change for a moment, though Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo had no reaction. The fox himself snorted and glared at the humans that gawked at him. "What are you staring at lady?" he demanded of one woman where she was picking over a stand of plums. When the plum-woman had stopped staring at him, the fox turned his attention to Miroku's group. "What do you want?"

"We've come for information," Miroku began. He lifted his wrist and swung the little coin purse around, letting the fox hear the money rattling inside.

"Don't taunt me with it," the fox snapped, irritably. "What do you want to know? Maybe I can help—maybe I can't. I promise nothing."

Miroku clutched the coin purse tightly, keeping it safe in case thr kitsune wanted to steal it from him by ripping it clear off his wrist. "My friends and I want some reliable information about where we can find Lord Sesshomaru in the Western Lands. We understand there are at least two castles that he is known to reside at, but we need to find him quickly on a matter of some urgency…"

The fox gave a rude gesture with his hand, shushing Miroku. "I'll tell you all the crap you want to know about that dog," he laughed. "I'd almost do it for free—but don't get stingy on me, monk."

"I would never do such a thing," Miroku said. To prove it he opened the purse and pulled out a single shining coin. "Here, to show our honorable intentions."

The fox snatched the coin away and pocketed it in his torn, ugly gray robes. "Nice to meet you all," he said, though no introductions had been made. "I'm Zatsu. Okay, the Big Dog has upwards of _four_ places, palaces, castles, and fortresses." Now Zatsu began rattling off information so fast that Miroku and Kagome could barely keep up. "Up until the last decade Nejiro was his favorite place. Nejiro is in the middle of the Western Lands, a full blown castle in the mountains with no town around it. Jouka is a palace where he raised his favorite she-dog. Jouka is the farthest away and isolated too. One village around it. Then there's the Insen, a fortress he rarely uses. It's on a craggy cliff. That's where his first kid was born. Then there's Naishougoto where he kept his secret wife for a few years. That one is on a stinky lake."

When Zatsu had finished rambling, Kagome shook her head. "But _where is he now?"_

Zatsu made a face and extended his clawed hand, waiting for another coin. Miroku supplied it readily but Zatsu didn't retract his hand. Sighing, Miroku fished out another coin and gave it to him.

Satisfied, Zatsu pocketed the money and started speaking much slower. His first rambling had been a sales pitch, letting Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo know that he knew the subject. Now he was delving into the specific information they needed. "Sesshomaru isn't in any of those places right now. Latest word was that he was out making some rounds in the Kosetsu."

"Kosetsu?" Kagome asked. "Where is that?"

"One of his kids is there these days, and Lady Shiroihana."

"Who is—" Masuyo's question was cut off by Miroku.

"Tell us where the Kosetsu is," he ordered and took out another two coins. He tossed them at the fox and Zatsu caught them effortlessly.

"Sure thing, Monk. The Kosetsu is close to the Isei, just inside the Western Lands. It's a province. Overgrown, uninhabited by humans. Walk southeast of here for half a day and you'll be in the Kosetsu province, but you'll never find the Kagetsu palace without someone who can find their way through the forest…" Zatsu smirked slyly.

"You're saying we need a guide?" Kagome asked, groaning.

Miroku pursed his lips and squeezed the thinning coin purse in his fist. _This guy is a bigger scam artist than I am._ "There are no human settlements in the Kosetsu?" he asked.

"Only at the borders. There are no obvious roads to the Kagetsu palace. That's how Lady Shiroihana likes it. _Private._ You humans will never find it, but _I _have served as a messenger there before," Zatsu said, baiting them.

Miroku sighed and lifted his hand up. "I'll give you everything I have in here _if_ you take us to Kagetsu palace, and _if _we find Lord Sesshomaru there."

The fox let out a short burst of laughter and grinned smugly at them. "Three humans want to see the Big Dog _so_ badly. I will take you to the Kagetsu palace only for the price of information. Tell me why you want me to escort you to meet your death? They say Lady Shiroihana eats humans and she despises trespassers. Why do you three want to go?"

"Who is this lady you speak of?" Miroku asked.

"The Big Bitch. Sesshomaru's mother. Kagetsu palace is hers."

* * *

A/N: Next time...

Inuyasha:

_"It's too fuckin' hot to sleep; you gotta leave your mouth open and pant." He demonstrated, letting his mouth hang open and exhaling loudly. His pink tongue lolled._

Tisoki:

_Tisoki whispered to the boy, "Pretend the girl with the golden eyes is the ugliest thing you've ever seen and you'll live."_

Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo:

_Then, finally, the clanking of the swordsmen faded into the distance and Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo found themselves at the top of the stairway. Lights exploded into existence, some of them fiery, others of the iridescent, supernatural orb type. The lights illuminated a massive, splendid castle, wreathed in low misty clouds that reflected the firelight and the glow of the white orbs._


	23. The Lady of Kagetsu Palace

A/N: OKAY! (I'm excited for this story!) For the **infamous** Sessmom I researched the manga chapters where she appears and I tried to read between the lines a little, I also drew a bit from the ideas of an artist on deviantart (more on that at another time). Mainly I tried to let the manga dictate my portrayal of Sessmom. Naming her was intimidating too; I hope no one is going "Shiroihana? WTF?" (if so I apologize.) Basically from the moment I took her on, she's been running the show and I don't even know how that's possible since she's fictional…

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Sango came up with an idea of where Kasai and Kagome are and insisted their group get a move on. Kasai had a bath and tried to escape. She feels that the parasite inside her is growing and taking control of her. Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome talked to a fox named Zatsu asking for Sess's whereabouts. They were told the Kosetsu and Kagetsu palace, home of the "Big Bitch," infamous SessMom.

* * *

**The Lady of Kagetsu Palace  
**

In spite of Sango's assurance that she was all right, Inuyasha kept a slow pace and made an effort to pass through most of the villages as they traveled in case Sango suddenly grew ill. They headed northwest, following a gut-instinct that Koinu had had when he'd dreamed of his mother using her spiritual power. It was the same night that he'd woken up with the purple energy flowing over his palms and between his fingers. There was no time to talk of it, but it was clear that both of Inuyasha and Kagome's children had managed to inherit their mother's spiritual energy somehow.

It was a discovery that was buried by the need to find Kagome and Kasai.

Much to her distaste, the group posed Akisame as a priestess and Shippo as a priest or sometimes as a monk. They took their time passing through the villages, asking up about missing monks or priestesses. They learned nothing new at first but by the afternoon hours they'd learned one vital piece of information: they weren't alone.

The villagers described a group of young men that had passed through, asking about priests and monks as well. When the villagers gave a description along the lines of, "Well I think they were brothers," followed by "The oldest had a big bow on his shoulder," all doubts were blown away.

Sango's sons had come through—but why were they alone, without Miroku?

Inuyasha growled and complained to Sango, who was clinging to his back, between villages. The land they were traveling as they headed northwest was flat and flooded with water. Though they didn't know it they were near the city of Niigata.

"I bet your sons just left their old man in the dark," Inuyasha whined.

Sango had her chin resting on Inuyasha's shoulder. She felt heavy, slow, incredibly tired. A heaviness laid out in her womb that worried her. She was working hard to hide it from Inuyasha and the others, though if anything happened it would be impossible to lie to them about it. If she started to bleed, or if her hormones changed, or even if she started to sweat too much in discomfort, it would be impossible to hide it around a bunch of inu-hanyou, part inu-hanyou, and a kitsune.

When Sango didn't answer his accusation right away, Inuyasha lifted his head and flicked his ears, a movement he knew would tickle Sango's temple and bump her awake if she had fallen asleep. "Hey, Sango? Are you okay back there?"

The demon slayer sighed irritably. "Yes, I'm trying to sleep."

"It's too fuckin' hot to sleep; you gotta leave your mouth open and pant." He demonstrated, letting his mouth hang open and exhaling loudly. His pink tongue lolled.

Walking next to him, Shippo snickered.

Inuyasha glared at him. "Shut up, runt! What the hell do you do when you're hot, huh? Lick yourself like an animal?"

Shippo shrugged noncommittally and refused to fall for Inuyasha's taunting.

The hanyou grumbled for a time and stared ahead at Akisame and Koinu. His ears flattened as he let his mind wander with worry. What if Kagome had died…?

He ran into a solid block of granite inside his mind when he tried to legitimately consider the possibility. He was a calculator trying to divide by zero. It was not fathomable…so he turned back to annoying Sango by complaining about her sons.

"Why the hell would that idiot Kohimu _not_ go get Miroku? Without the monk they've got no brains at all. I'm surprised they got this far!"

Sango closed her eyes and groaned against his shoulder.

"Hey?" Inuyasha barked at her, scratching at the back of her knee with his claws. The sensation made Sango jerk violently, sitting up with alarm. "You okay back there?" Inuyasha asked.

"I'm fine!" Sango let out a growl of her own, as fierce as many that Inuyasha had uttered in his time. "I'm trying to sleep, Inuyasha!" Suddenly she could understand why Kagome hadn't had any more children with the hanyou. Inuyasha was incapable of leaving her alone while he was worried. He foisted his worry for Kagome onto Sango, pestering the demon slayer the same way he had obsessed over Kagome while she had been pregnant.

"Feh," he grunted. "Sorry for caring! You made a funny noise…"

Sango decided to try and distract his attention. "Where did Shippo go? Are we close to the next village yet? Shouldn't we be going a little faster?"

"You're right, where is that runt…" Inuyasha yelled out to Akisame and Koinu, "Hey, can you still see Shippo? Did he run off?"

Akisame turned back to answer Inuyasha, shrugging her shoulders. She was dressed in the billowing traditional regalia of a priestess with her wild black hair tied back and restrained. Except for her golden eyes she was painfully similar to Kagome and Kikyo—until she opened her mouth. "The little idiot is over the next rise, Dad."

Koinu whipped around suddenly and shouted to Inuyasha and Sango urgently. "I smell Sango's sons up ahead!"

Sango, already trying to drift off into a light sleep, didn't stir at the sound of Koinu's voice. To her the words were a dream, not worth reacting to until Inuyasha scratched the back of her knee again. She sat up, jolted awake by his clawed touch and cursed in a whisper under her breath. "Damn you, Inuyasha…"

"Hey," the hanyou snapped, interrupting her. "Koinu thinks he's found your idiot sons."

His words made Sango tense with a mixture of excitement and relief. She tugged on Inuyasha's hair as if he were a horse that needed some physical encouragement. "Go on, hurry!"

"Yeah, fine," Inuyasha growled. He picked up his pace, running with a wide gait but not leaping. Ahead Koinu and Akisame had disappeared over the rise. As soon as Inuyasha had crested the hill he and Sango saw six figures down below them on the descending path. Three of them were Akisame, Koinu, and Shippo, but the others were Sango's sons. Kohimu stood out amongst them, tall, muscular, and proud with his massive bow and quiver of arrows slung over his arm. He lifted his hand up and waved, signaling to Sango and Inuyasha.

The hanyou leapt lightly, three times only to close the gap between himself and Sango's sons. Yet, by the time he'd landed in the first leap both he and Sango could tell that the group wasn't Kohimu, Tisoki and Masuyo—the youngest of the troupe wasn't one of Sango's sons at all.

"Put me down," Sango ordered the moment she caught sight of the stranger walking with her sons. Her heart was pounding with fresh worry. Her sons had not found their father and they were missing Masuyo. Had tragedy befallen her family twice over?

Inuyasha stopped and started to kneel to let her off his back gently but Sango pushed off him and landed hard on her feet. The jarring motion sent an ominous ripple through her heavy womb and she grimaced. Her hands came over her abdomen, making a fist as she fought the desire to hold onto herself, but that gesture was one of weakness. Sango forced her spine upright and straight. Her arms fell stiffly to her sides.

The hanyou hadn't missed her expression of discomfort, however. "Sango—are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, pushing him away from her. She looked up at Kohimu, then Tisoki, and finally at the stranger with narrowed eyes. "What happened here? Kohimu, Tisoki? Where's your brother? Where's your father?" she advanced on them with a hard, stern expression on her face. "Inuyasha told you to go get your father! Why did you disobey him, Kohimu?"

Kohimu shook his head and stepped past Tisoki, the stranger, and Inuyasha's gawking children. "Mother," he addressed her with a respectful title and in a calm voice. "We didn't disobey Inuyasha. Father is with Masuyo. He's going to Sesshomaru for help…" He stopped and stared at his mother, a sudden ripple of emotion passed through his face. "I'm so glad you're okay…"

Sango's posture relaxed at last and she let out a long breath. "It's good to see you too. I'm sorry I was harsh. I saw the stranger with you and…"

"It's okay," Tisoki called, interrupting them. He patted the stranger on the back and grinned. "This is Nobe, Mom. He wants to be a demon slayer. It was Nobe that found Kagome on the road…"

This brought immediate attention from Inuyasha, Koinu, and Akisame. "He found Mom?" Akisame demanded, poking one clawed finger at Nobe.

Nobe nodded. "I found the priestess named Kagome." He stared wide eyed at Akisame and smiled goofily. "Ah, uh—may I ask, what's your name, milady? Um—was Kagome your mother?" Nobe failed to notice Tisoki's nervous throat-clearing at his side, in fact he raised his voice over it to make sure that Akisame could hear him.

Koinu and Inuyasha bristled as one at Nobe's obvious curiosity. Koinu stepped closer to his sister, his ears flattened down against his hair and Inuyasha leapt abruptly to stand just behind his children, growling.

"Calm down, Inuyasha," Sango said, sighing. "Before you kill him don't you think you should ask him about Kagome?"

Nobe stuttered and backed away, trying to hide behind Tisoki. "W-what d-did I do wrong?"

Tisoki whispered to the boy, "Pretend the girl with the golden eyes is the ugliest thing you've ever seen and you'll live."

"But she's beautiful…" Nobe murmured, shaking his head in confusion.

Tisoki laughed, "Yeah I know but her dad will rip your nuts off if you look too long."

"Cut it out, both of you," Akisame growled. She shoved Inuyasha away from her and pulled on Koinu's hair until they had stepped back, giving her a few extra feet. "Didn't you hear him say he found Mom?"

Inuyasha stepped in front of both of his children and addressed Nobe. "All right, stop looking at Aki and start talking, kid…"

The group moved off the road and exchanged information. Kohimu and Tisoki marveled at their mother's lucky escape and the gentler, more emotional Tisoki even threw his arms around her in a hug. Tisoki explained that Miroku had suggested that Kohimu take Nobe on as his first true apprentice. Kohimu told them that as far as they knew Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome were safe, traveling to the Western Lands to ask Sesshomaru for his help. Then they related, as best as they could, all the things Kagome had told them of the place where she and Kasai had been held as prisoners of their spiritual power.

"Dad said he had never heard of a demon that fed on spiritual power like Master Dani," Tisoki said, solemnly. They were focusing their explanation on Sango and Inuyasha, the two most educated members of their group as far as demons were concerned.

"No," Kohimu corrected his brother, frowning, "what he said was that he had never seen a parasitic youkai like Master Dani operate at such a huge scale. Kagome said there were hundreds of monks and priestesses trapped there."

Sango stared at her sons silently. Her jaw was squared, the muscles clenched. Her face had paled. Inuyasha sat at her side with a similar expression though his face was twisted with more anger.

"She said there was something in her neck that the parasite used to control them with, but when Nobe found her the only thing on her neck was a healing wound." Kohimu reached over to Tisoki and gently pushed his brother's head down and shoved his short ponytail aside to draw a line with his finger over the bumps of the cervical vertebrae. "It controlled her limbs and caused incredible pain if she resisted."

"He held worship ceremonies every morning where he bit a few of the monks and priestesses. But she said all of them were sickly even though he wasn't biting all of them every day. She thought there was an accumulating poison that killed the monks and priestesses," Tisoki said.

Inuyasha spoke up then, demandingly. "Did this fucker ever bite Kagome?"

Kohimu shook his head. "He tried but didn't go through with it. Our father suggested that the parasite couldn't stomach her spiritual power because it's so powerful, above what he was used to, and that was why he got rid of her."

Tisoki picked up where his older brother left off. "She didn't know how she got to where Nobe found her, but Dad was convinced that there wasn't any trickery in her release. She was free and clear. But she spoke to Kasai before she left and Kasai remembered who she was."

Koinu lifted his head, his ears perking up. "Had Kasai been bitten?"

"No," Kohimu answered, sighing. "But that was days ago…"

"Does this mean anything significant to you, Mom?" Tisoki asked.

Sango closed her eyes tiredly. "My father used to tell us a story from his father, my grandfather's time. Back then a demon slayer was expected to have spiritual powers. Men like my grandfather were laughed at and treated like brutes for coming in with a sword or a club to do the job of a priest, a monk, or a priestess. But when my grandfather was a young man the humans with spiritual powers became scarce and the remaining slayers with spiritual powers began encountering demons of all kinds that were immune to their spiritual attacks. These demons all wore a strange talisman. It was a white, crumbling stone like a bit of dried bone or chalk. The last slayers with spiritual powers asked men like my grandfather for help. Together they tracked down the demon that made the talismans. The demon was an insect youkai that fed on the blood of humans with spiritual power."

Inuyasha growled, scowling. "I've seen these talismans, Sango. Several times. Demons tried to sell them to me when I was a pup, but I saw a fox peddling them in the Middle Lands just a couple years ago." He stopped and snorted with disgust. "They smell like shit."

"Kagome didn't say anything about talismans," Kohimu pointed out.

"I know," Sango said, "but that doesn't mean they weren't there. The demon that made the talismans was the same one that had created the shortage of monks and priestesses. Children were taken even before they knew they had any powers and monks were abducted from their temples during worship. They were taken by all kinds of demons and brought to this parasitic youkai. The demon traded the talismans in exchange for help from the other youkai—like Hakugei and the seabird that took all of us away. Kagome didn't see the talismans but I'm sure they were there."

"Are you saying this is the same demon, Sango?" Shippo asked from where he sat beside Nobe.

"No, the one that my grandfather faced as a young man was killed, but my grandfather said that one of the monks they set free was possessed somehow with the spirit of the demon. This monk killed a few of the slayers with spiritual power and escaped after drinking their blood. My grandfather lived the rest of his life expecting to kill a new incarnation of the parasite, but it never happened. My father passed on the story as a precaution to Kohaku and I."

"This is great and all but it doesn't help us _find_ this bastard," Inuyasha grumbled. "And I'm guessing that Kasai doesn't have much time."

Sango sighed and shook her head. "I wasn't finished. My grandfather and the other slayers found that this demon maintained the appearance of a luxurious spa. He tended several hot springs. The place appeared utterly normal and my grandfather felt certain that they had been wrong about the place until some of the servants there came after the slayers with spiritual powers. All of the slayers realized that the servants were under an outside control as if they were possessed. They had the marks at the back of their necks as Kagome described and all of them possessed spiritual powers. And their necks were bruised as if they had been bitten. It seems that Kagome's story is nearly identical to my grandfather's, and because that is the case I believe we should search every shrine or temple in the north along the coast. It will appear legitimate, but if we remain for any length of time this parasite will come after Tisoki."

"Feh," Inuyasha grunted. "That still leaves us a hell of a lot of ground to cover!"

"Yes," Sango lowered her head and her shoulders sagged with exhaustion and the weight of worry. "We should hurry."

* * *

The fox brought Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo along the main road for several hours. They passed other travelers, mostly human, but as Zatsu had promised of the Kosetsu there were no farms or villages. It wasn't long before Zatsu led them off the path through dense foliage. At first they followed game trails, but as the sun started to set it started to appear as though Zatsu was lost. There was no path to speak of, only groves of trees and thick ferns that brushed up against their knees.

The forest grew so dark and thick that moonlight and starlight failed to penetrate the canopy. The three humans walked with grueling slowness, pawing their way through the dark, guiding themselves around trees. Zatsu prodded them onward impatiently, shouting through the dark.

"How much farther is it?" Miroku asked.

"You cannot see it but Kagetsu palace is on the mountainside up ahead. In the next few hundred steps you'll feel the ground get rockier and steeper. At the gates Lady Shiroihana's ghoul guards will surely skewer you three alive and feed you to her tomorrow morning." Zatsu laughed wickedly through the darkness. "But this is where you're paying me to take you."

Masuyo, tense with fear, fumbled for Kagome's hand. Without the presence of light Kagome's white priestess haori was the brightest thing in the boy's world. He couldn't make out his father's dark robes at all. "Is he telling the truth, Aunt Kagome?" Masuyo asked. "Could this lady be more powerful and cruel than Lord Sesshomaru?"

"I'm sure he's exaggerating," Kagome said, laughing meekly. "He's a fox after all, like Shippo."

An eerie, green-glowing light started up about fifteen feet above them, hovering near the canopy. Zatsu's voice came from in the distance, snickering. "Ah, she has sensed our trespassing. Here is where I must take my leave of you."

Miroku stopped, standing stiffly upright. He peered up at the light, as did Kagome and Masuyo. The green illumination hummed above their heads, casting its light onto their faces, glowing in their fixed gazes. "Kagome," Miroku murmured. "Does that color remind you—"

Kagome interrupted him with her answer, "Sesshomaru's whip and his poison."

"Move away from it," Miroku ordered. He grabbed Kagome and then reached hurriedly for his son, hauling them away from the orb of light. "Zatsu," he shouted, "what about your payment? We're not at the castle yet and I will only pay you when we see Lord Sesshomaru!"

The fox materialized before them on four legs. He lifted his puffy tail and flicked it. The green light reflected from his eyes in an alarming orange color. "Money doesn't mean anything if I'm dead," he cackled.

"Wait!" Kagome lunged for him but the fox was already gone in a puff of gray-green smoke. "Great," she groaned, coughing.

"Kagome! Move away from there!" Miroku grabbed her arm and pulled on it. She stumbled back to him and Masuyo and stared upward as a second orb burst into light. It dipped up and down, pulsing. As they watched the two green orbs came together and floated toward them.

"Do you sense anything?" Miroku asked.

"Nothing," Kagome said. She held onto Masuyo's shoulders as the boy began to tremble and whimper with fear. "I don't know what we should do."

"We've come this far," the monk said. He tapped his staff, making it jangle loudly. The orbs above them appeared to respond to the sound, pulsing in mimicry. "Masuyo, do you think you can run with us?"

"Yes," Masuyo answered, taking a deep breath. "Just don't let us get separated Dad. I don't want to be alone here."

"We won't be separated," Miroku reassured him. He reached out and took hold of his son's hand, pulling him away from Kagome. The monk placed himself in the center of their group and they linked hands. "Run towards the mountain," he ordered.

Masuyo took off, leading the way with a high pitched, boyish shout. Miroku and Kagome followed behind him, racing through the dense trees, forcing their way beyond leafy saplings, and stumbling as one over the uneven ground. It was exactly as Zatsu had said; the ground became rocky and began to slope sharply upwards. As they raced forward more of the green orbs came to life out of the night. The lights dipped down and followed them, pulsing with their ghostly, magical energy. Though the lights were alarming for the humans, they were also helpful in the completeness of the dark. Each new light that started up helped guide the three humans up the difficult slope.

Suddenly, ahead of them on the slope, Masuyo saw a green light burst into life and directly below its firefly glow there was a humanoid shape, a shadow. He cried out and came to a stumbling stop. "Look! W-what's that thing?"

Miroku and Kagome crowded the boy's side, narrowing their eyes as they examined it. The shadow moved, jerking to life. It was bulky and parts of it reflected the green light iridescently. It lifted something long and straight up that was unmistakable: a sword.

"That's trouble," Miroku said. He broke their chain of linking hands and put Kagome's hand on Masuyo's. "Run!"

"Miroku, no!" Kagome reached for the monk's hand, unwilling to leave without him. As she fought him a massive wall of the green orbs rose out of the forest behind them as the other orbs caught up with them and came to hover over them like a beacon. Kagome's face was colored bright green and while Miroku and Masuyo's eyes and hair glinted with the eerie light.

"It's coming!" Masuyo pointed at the sword-wielding shape as it started toward them with the orb of light flying overhead with it. The boy fumbled over his clothes, searching for his sling and the sack of throwing stones. He stepped forward to make sure that he wouldn't accidentally strike Kagome or his father with them.

"Masuyo!" Miroku yelled, "Don't fight it! Run!"

The boy ignored his father and let the stone fly. Like the ancient Christian-Judeo David squaring off with the mammoth Goliath, Masuyo's small stone had surprising power. The little stone smacked the sword-wielding creature's rounded, armored head like a bullet. The impact was loud with a clinking sound like glass. The shape stalled for a moment and the sword wobbled.

In that pause the three were able to see their opponent's features and body much more clearly. It was a dead creature. The head was fleshless and the eye sockets loomed empty and dark. Green light danced over the armor and escaped many of the links in it. The thing was apparently fueled by the same power that controlled the green orbs then.

"Good shot, son," Miroku commented, rather stunned by the young teen's bravery.

"Not good enough," Masuyo muttered as he placed another stone in the sling and set it swinging. This stone smacked the dead swordsman's blade, making it ring loudly. Oddly the impact seemed to waken him and he, as well as the pulsating green light, began advancing on them once more.

"Go!" Miroku pushed Kagome and Masuyo away and ignored their shouts of protest as he pulled out a sutra from his robes and faced off with the undead swordsman. Slapping the sutra over his staff, Miroku thrust the weapon at the swordsmen, impaling the armored apparition where its neck would've been in life. The swordsmen glowed green-white and, with a clattering sound, imploded on itself. The armor flew out, the bones scattered, crashing against Miroku.

The monk dropped to the rocky ground, shielding his head while Masuyo cried out in alarm for his father. Kagome held him still, trying to think fast as the hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood up. More green orbs had appeared ahead and the ones they had awakened behind them had not dissipated or disappeared. They glided through the trees and skimmed over the ground, too close for her comfort.

Miroku emerged from the discarded bones and armor. He rushed for Kagome and Masuyo. "Run up the mountain! Go! Don't stop!"

Two more of the ghostly swordsmen appeared with the green orbs ahead. They lifted their swords and began to advance on the humans. Kagome ushered Masuyo away from the ghost soldiers, taking the only direction that was left open to them. Miroku ran at their heels, shouting encouragement and slashing at the orbs that came too close with his staff. On impact the lights were snuffed out, vanishing as they were purified.

Abruptly Masuyo stumbled and fell, but when he caught himself he found that his hands had landed on a polished wooden walkway. He stared down at his hands, panting with exertion. "I think…we made it!"

Kagome and Miroku piled up behind him, stumbling over the first step of the walkway as well. As they paused momentarily to gaze at it, an orange light flared up. This time it was not supernatural in origin but appeared to be mere fire in a torch mounted on a small, decorating stone wall.

The swordsmen's footsteps clattered close behind them, propelling them up the wooden walkway and the long stair that followed. Swordsmen moved along the sides of the path, their armor clanking. They spilled onto the stairway and slashed at the humans but Miroku led the way and stabbed them with his staff. Each time a swordsmen was purified he exploded and sent out a shrapnel storm of armor and bones that beat and bruised the humans. Every few feet another torch spluttered into light and crackled as it burned.

Then, finally, the clanking of the swordsmen faded into the distance and Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo found themselves at the top of the stairway. Lights exploded into existence, some of them fiery, others of the iridescent, supernatural orb type. The lights illuminated a massive, splendid castle, wreathed in low misty clouds that reflected the firelight and the glow of the white orbs.

"It's beautiful," Kagome breathed.

"Is this mist safe to breathe?" Masuyo asked, covering his nose instinctively.

Miroku followed his son's example and lifted his long sleeve to cover his mouth and nose. "An excellent question, Masuyo." The monk pulled on Kagome's arm, indicating that she should do the same.

"Where is everyone if they know we're here?" Kagome asked, tensing. "I sense strong demonic auras everywhere but I don't _see_ anyone…"

"It's almost certainly an ominous sign," Miroku muttered. "Some kind of trap is brewing, surely."

Just as he'd finished speaking the mists moved, shifting as if with a sudden wind. The group turned and stared through the white-glowing mist and saw the sliding doors at the front of the palace slide open almost soundlessly. A figure stepped through the doorway. Its outline was strange: the head was seemingly small, but the shoulders were wide and the legs long and very narrow. The legs moved almost imperceptibly, as if the creature was barely taking any steps at all, but it moved swiftly, emerging out of the mists with great confidence.

Before the creature had come clear to their human eyes, it spoke in a deep but beautiful female voice.

"You are suspicious, impatient humans," it observed, sounding amused. "So sorry to have kept you waiting—I know your lives are pathetically short."

Miroku pushed Kagome and Masuyo protectively behind him, but Kagome resisted, trying to take a center position. She had dealt with Sesshomaru before fully understanding his power years ago and she had survived. She hoped to have similar luck with this female inuyoukai.

"We apologize, my lady, for trespassing on your land, but we have a desperate need to see Lord Sesshomaru and we were told that he was here…" Miroku spoke in a calm, confident voice, using plain but courteous words to address the demon woman. It was the same tone that he used while exorcising demons, the reasonable but powerful voice.

The inuyoukai woman had stopped her approach. She was at least thirty feet away from them over the wide, wooden verandah of the palace. She moved her shoulders, lifting the massive fluffy wrap over her arms and torso. One of her pale, clawed hands emerged from her long, elegant sleeves and began to stroke the fluffy wrap in slow, gentle motions. "This is not a place for humans. You are very lucky that my son requested that I leave you alive."

"Then he is here?" Miroku asked, suddenly desperate. He dropped down into a bow. "Please my lady, I ask that you would grant us entrance to speak with Lord Sesshomaru."

The inuyoukai woman stepped closer, moving with the impossibly few steps and unusual swiftness that they had observed before. In a matter of seconds she was three feet away from the bowed monk. Her beauty and her close resemblance to Sesshomaru became glaringly obvious at such a distance. Masuyo and Kagome gawked while Miroku remained bowed in a submissive, begging position. It was not like Sesshomaru to slaughter absolutely helpless, defenseless creatures, so it followed hopefully that his mother would behave in a similar way. Aside from that reasoning Miroku hadn't had time to rise into a defensive position out of his bow before the inuyoukai woman was within arm's reach.

The inuyoukai woman stared hard not at Miroku, but at Kagome. Her golden eyes gleamed with intelligence and interest. "My son has asked me to send you away." Her gaze moved to Masuyo then and the boy averted his eyes, overwhelmed by her. She smiled, seeming to delight in his response. "Of course I am not my son's servant. Follow me, humans."

She turned and began to fade into the mist, heading back toward the sliding doors. As Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome started after her, slow with their astonishment and shock, the demon woman called over her shoulder in a high voice, taunting them: "Do not tarry, I will not wait."

They picked up their pace, running to catch up with her. The entrance to the palace through a massive sliding door decorated with white clouds against a gray sky was open when they reached it. Miroku entered first, then Masuyo, and finally Kagome.

* * *

A/N: I have up to about chapter 26 of _Innocence_ done and I'm excited about it and proud of the way it's starting to shape up. Yay! I think there are surprisingly few chapters left...but anyway, next time:

Masuyo and Sesshmom:

_She ignored his introduction and pointed to Masuyo. "This is your son? The one that tried to slay my guards with pebbles?"_

_Masuyo blushed at her words and cringed under her inspection. Shiroihana took a step closer to their group and the boy could just see her kimono rippling with her tiny steps. The massive, plush white fur around her shoulders draped down and hid her hands from view. Though Masuyo couldn't see it, both Kagome and Miroku had tensed and prepared themselves to defend him if Shiroihana made a sudden, dangerous move. It appeared that Shiroihana was the real authority before them—__not__ Sesshomaru, oddly enough, at least for the time being._

Kenpo and Kasai:

_"We're already in hell," Kenpo answered, solemnly. "It's as you said, I won't let him win. This thing inside me, I won't let it attain life. The only thing that can redeem our souls now is if we kill ourselves to stop Master Dani from harming future generations."_

_It was her argument, but with a twist that Kasai couldn't dispute. She nodded. "Tomorrow."_


	24. Sesshomaru, Shiroihana, and Saya

A/N: Again okay, Sessmom rocks my socks; she's so much fun to write. I hope no one reads it and feels I've gotten her all wrong (I was trying to do a good job but after a while it felt like I lost control because she was driving and she had her foot on the gas). I originally wanted Saya to be the driving force in this chapter, but Shiroihana overpowers everyone else like a bull. Weeeeird but true.

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last chapter: IY and Sango met up with Kohimu, Tisoki, and Nobe and shared information. Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo followed Zatsu until he abandoned them on the mountainside. They fought their way to Kagetsu through ghostly swordsmen and met Sessmom at the top where she told them Sess had told her to tell them to take a hike, but she led them in anyway.

* * *

**Sesshomaru, Shiroihana, and Saya**

The foyer was dark and unlit. Kagome, Miroku, and Masuyo fumbled in the dark, sheepishly shedding their shoes and venturing to the next set of sliding doors. The inuyoukai woman had vanished mysteriously though none of them had seen her pass through the next set of sliding doors.

Miroku reached for the doors but they opened before his fingers could touch them. He gasped at the sudden movement and stared into the room beyond with wide eyes. It was bright white, almost glittering. The walls were painted with snow scenes and white blossoms on trees with white bark. _Someone likes white,_ Miroku thought, blinking. The floor was rich mahogany wood, reddish in color like wine. Cream-yellow tatami mats lined the floor for sitting.

As the three humans filed into the white room, one of the sliding doors, painted with a snowstorm and a gray-purple crescent moon, slid open rather loudly. Kagome, Miroku, and Masuyo found themselves staring at a rather annoyed Sesshomaru. They shifted awkwardly and bowed before him, trying to greet him properly though they hadn't had enough time to adjust or prepare for the meeting. They were still sweating from the mad dash up the mountainside, the long stairway, and the battles with the ghostly swordsmen.

"Monk," Sesshomaru addressed Miroku without preamble. "You have come to ask me for my assistance, have you not?"

Miroku sat up and nodded. "Yes, I have come to call upon you to ask that you fulfill your debt to my family. My wife and my daughter are missing—"

"I have heard this before," Sesshomaru interrupted him. While Miroku and the others stared at the lord with surprise, Sesshomaru stepped into the room and sat down. His expression was tenser than usual, his golden eyes hinted at annoyance. "There is no debt between our families, monk. My debt was with Inuyasha and I have fulfilled it."

"What?" Miroku asked, shaking his head, as if he could deny Sesshomaru's claim and prove the powerful lord of the Western Lands wrong, mistaken, or all-out lying. "How?"

Sesshomaru's gaze slid casually to Kagome. "Your daughter bears a close physical resemblance to you, but she lacks all decency. Nevertheless, I returned her to Inuyasha. There is no debt left to be paid."

"You rescued Akisame?' Kagome asked, leaning forward with fresh zeal.

"Yes," Sesshomaru replied, blandly. He was beginning to look less annoyed and more bored with them. "Now—leave."

Kagome and Masuyo started to shift and rise to their feet but Miroku, stubborn and desperate like Sango had been, refused to move yet. He bowed again and began speaking rapidly. "Please, Lord Sesshomaru. Without your aid my daughter Kasai is in danger. She has been imprisoned by a strange parasitic demon. We cannot locate her and my wife is missing as well. Please, without my family's help six years ago your daughter Saya would not have—"

"Silence," Sesshomaru ordered him. Though the order was a strong one his vocal torn was still bored and nonthreatening. "Monk your wife is the demon slayer, correct?"

Miroku looked up and blinked. "Yes, she is."

"She is well and traveling with my brother," Sesshomaru said. After a short pause he added, "Your daughter is not my responsibility. I owe your family no debt."

The sliding door behind Sesshomaru, the one with the gray-purple crescent moon, rolled open again. The sound appeared to startle Sesshomaru as he moved his head quickly to look in that direction. A short figure—a little girl—moved through the door, less than half of Sesshomaru's height. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed and his lips moved quickly into a frown.

Miroku and Kagome recognized the latest arrival immediately and their mouths fell open in pleasant surprise. Smiles tugged at their lips. Masuyo meanwhile gaped with wide blue eyes.

The little girl sat down about a foot from Sesshomaru and bowed for a moment. Her bright white hair spilled over her shoulders. Her kimono was blue-black with swirls of pink like ripples over the glassy surface of a pond. She rose out of her bow and smiled widely at the humans and then at Sesshomaru. Her golden eyes twinkled with amusement.

No introduction was needed but Miroku and Kagome had no idea how to risk addressing the girl without inciting Sesshomaru's wrath. From his expression the lord of the Western Lands didn't appreciate his daughter's presence in the white room with him.

"Saya," Sesshomaru spoke in a low, dangerous voice of warning. "Leave."

"Lady Shiroihana told me to come in here, Father." She directed her attention to the humans and lifted one clawed hand in a happy, childish wave. "Hello Aunt Kagome! Hello monk Miroku."

"Saya," Sesshomaru repeated, "leave."

"Can you blame her?" the deep female voice of Lady Shiroihana asked. Everyone in the room, human, hanyou, and inuyoukai alike, turned to regard her. Sesshomaru's mother smiled in a tiny but smug expression as she gazed at her son. "Little Saya wants to see these humans and sit with her beloved father. Will you really push her away?"

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed unhappily. He turned away from his mother and faced the humans again placidly, obeying her without another word. Shiroihana remained in the room but showed no sign of sitting to make herself comfortable. After a time of awkward silence, during which the three humans had no idea of how to react or conduct themselves, Shiroihana spoke to Miroku, "Did I hear you mention a parasitic demon, monk?"

Nervously, Miroku bowed before her. "Yes, my lady. Kagome was held prisoner at a large temple and shrine that this demon operates and she reported that my daughter was there as well. I have never encountered a demon that fits the description of this parasite in my many years of service as a demon slayer and exorcist…"

Saya leaned forward slightly and made a little gasping sound. "You mean Kasai?"

Miroku nodded somberly at the little hanyou girl. His gaze moved uncertainly over Sesshomaru and Shiroihana, as if seeking approval or waiting for a blow to fall. His golden staff lied at his side and he held onto it with one hand with such force that his knuckles were bleached white with pressure. "Yes, she is my only daughter." He offered this information more for Sesshomaru and Shiroihana's benefit, trying to make them feel sympathy if possible.

"Monk," Shiroihana called. She stared him down, narrowing her golden eyes critically.

"My name is Miroku my lady," he kept his gaze pinned to the floor.

She ignored his introduction and pointed to Masuyo. "This is your son? The one that tried to slay my guards with pebbles?"

Masuyo blushed at her words and cringed under her inspection. Shiroihana took a step closer to their group and the boy could just see her kimono rippling with her tiny steps. The massive, plush white fur around her shoulders draped down and hid her hands from view. Though Masuyo couldn't see it, both Kagome and Miroku had tensed and prepared themselves to defend him if Shiroihana made a sudden, dangerous move. It appeared that Shiroihana was the real authority before them—_not_ Sesshomaru, oddly enough, at least for the time being.

"He is my son, yes my lady," Miroku replied.

Kagome spoke without being acknowledged. She sat up and went so far as to glare at Shiroihana. "And if that _pebble_ had hit a living man without a helmet on it would've gone straight through his skull."

Shiroihana twisted her neck slowly to stare at Kagome. She cocked her head, perplexed for a moment by the human woman's boldness. Then she began talking on the same subject as before, as if Kagome hadn't spoken at all. "Monk, I understand from Saya that you have many sons. What does your daughter matter?"

Miroku answered swiftly, though he was blinking with bafflement, barely able to comprehend how the inuyoukai woman could ask such a question. "It doesn't matter that she is my daughter, she's my child and she is an excellent demon slayer with spiritual powers like myself."

Shiroihana's gaze left Kagome sharply then to land on Miroku. Her stare was predatory, like a hawk's. "And if this daughter had been talentless and weak, what then? Would you have cared nothing for her loss? After all, youkai must eat if they are to survive. You thrive on their deaths and they on yours…"

"I will never sit by and let her die!" Miroku shouted, violently. "None of my children are talentless. Even if she could not fight as a demon slayer I would love and protect my daughter or any of my children." He grabbed up his staff and started to rise to his feet, making the staff jangle loudly. "And if you plan to sit here and waste my time like this—"

"No!" Saya shouted. She started to get up to race toward Shiroihana and Miroku but Sesshomaru laid a restraining hand on her, keeping her in her place. "Lady Shiroihana," Saya cried to her grandmother, "I love Kasai too. She is like one of my cousins. You can't let monk Miroku's daughter die!"

Shiroihana smiled while she stared at Miroku. She moved her shoulders, adjusting the white fur encircling her torso. "But your father owes this monk nothing. He has no debts with any of them, not even the priestess. But they have managed to destroy a few of my guards." Shiroihana's expression was oddly amused in a dark, taunting way. "What a great shame indeed. I have killed many for simply setting foot on my mountainside."

"No Lady Shiroihana, you can't kill them! They saved me!" Saya tugged on Sesshomaru's sleeve and then his arm. "You can't let her do it, Father! I beg you!"

With a distinctly tired expression, Sesshomaru said only one word: "Mother…"

"Hmm," the inuyoukai woman took a few steps back from the humans. Her expression remained light and amused, teasing them as she at last sat down on the floor beside Saya. She made a harsh gesture toward Miroku and ordered curtly, "Sit down. I'm not finished with you."

Uncertainly, awkwardly, Miroku sat and laid his staff down in front of him, a silent, ready threat to the powerful demons before him. Of course, if they had wished to kill any of the humans they could've done it long ago. Miroku remained upright and tense, waiting.

"I admire your audacity, humans. My son has settled his debt to you, but it seems Saya wishes that we not only spare you for your transgressions, but also help you in your quest!" She looked as if she might laugh with a sarcastic joy. "You are most fortunate that my son has such a compassionate child—and that I am curious. The human daughter that would inspire such love from a father. I had not thought humankind capable of such devotion to the weaker sex. And the parasite you speak of," her smile widened and her eyes narrowed darkly, "I know of it well."

Now Miroku and Kagome sat up, staring with shock. "You know him?" Kagome asked, incredulous. "He was a big guy in a robe, bald—he called himself Master Dani."

Shiroihana shook her head once. "I do not know his name, priestess. I know only what he does for other youkai." She pushed her hands out from under the plush fur at her shoulders and reached to the collar hem of her kimono. She took hold of a small strip of fabric and pulled on it. She laid the bit of fabric onto the tatami matting and unrolled it slowly. The fabric was a shiny black silk on the outside, but on the underside the silk was marred with a flaking white substance like chalk. The chalky powder was coming off a clumpy white stone. Shiroihana pinched that and lifted it into the air for them to see more clearly.

"What is that?" Kagome asked.

Surprisingly it was Sesshomaru that answered her, "It is a talisman sold amongst demons to render them immune or resistant to spiritual power. The demon that you described creates and sells these talismans."

"Where are they made then?" Miroku asked, urgently. "Please, tell us the location and we will leave immediately."

Shiroihana was folding the chalky talisman back up inside the black silk. Her fingers were stained white. "I will do better than that—I will take you there."

"What?" Masuyo asked, gaping. Miroku and Kagome both mimicked his incredulous stare.

Shiroihana finished wrapping up the talisman and lifted her hands to press it into the folds of her collar again. She smiled with almost a sly look. "There is one minor condition, monk."

Miroku nodded cautiously. "And that would be…?"

She sat forward as her hands disappeared back inside the voluminous folds of her long sleeves. "That the girl—or perhaps this boy here—would become my hostage for a time of course."

Kagome immediately objected. "You can't do that! Sesshomaru legitimately owes Miroku and his family a favor! This is nothing for all of you, but asking that much in return? It's ludicrous!"

"Kagome, please…" Miroku murmured, trying to shush her.

Masuyo stared in shock at the inuyoukai woman, then at Sesshomaru, and finally at Saya. The hanyou girl had lowered her head as if ashamed. Her white hair fell over her shoulders and hid her face. Masuyo bowed and began pleading rapidly. "Please lady, I don't want to leave my family, I just want my sister to be healthy and happy and with us again. Please, my family helped save your granddaughter…"

Sesshomaru broke his long silence at last. "Mother, what purpose would you have with a human child?"

"What a foolish question from you, Sesshomaru," Shiroihana murmured without looking away from the humans. "Perhaps you do not recall but I have often housed human hostages here. Sometimes it was for your father, and sometimes it was for myself. For any humans that grow powerful enough to catch my attention I often exact such a price."

"You think my family is powerful?" Masuyo asked, stunned by such an accusation. "We're just demon slayers!"

Shiroihana pointed at Kagome. "You have married into my son's family." Her finger changed positions and fell on Miroku. "Monk, you had the audacity to face me while searching for my son. Your foolhardy nature intrigues me, which is why I have decided to help you though my son owes you nothing and though your family is not part of a powerful clan."

"At the price of his children?" Kagome fumed, glaring.

"You sound as though I would be eating them," Shiroihana said. "Yet you have me to thank for your hanyou husband's existence."

"Mother," Sesshomaru objected. He was glaring at Shiroihana with surprising venom. "Stop this."

Shiroihana ignored him. "Inutaisho fell in love with one of my hostages, a little human princess, long ago."

"Mother," Sesshomaru's voice had grown thicker with warning. "Stop this. I will agree to help them…"

"How thoughtful of you," Shiroihana cooed, "but I'm afraid you must stay here with Saya and Hanone. I will accompany them myself."

"Wait—Miroku never agreed to your condition," Kagome pointed out, still glaring venomously at the inuyoukai woman. "Just tell us where the temple is and—"

"I will agree to your condition," Miroku said, interrupting Kagome's tirade and forcefully deflating the riled priestess.

Kagome stared at him with surprise and a sympathetic pain. "Miroku, no, don't agree…"

Masuyo bit his lip and sat frozen in his spot, miserable at the thought that he might have to leave his family to stay with the bizarre, intimidating inuyoukai woman. He risked glancing at his father's face and saw his misery mirrored on Miroku's face, but it was multiplied several times over and coupled with tenseness and fear.

"With her help we can save Kasai more quickly than we could alone, Kagome," Miroku reasoned, closing his eyes and bowing his head in defeat. "I'm afraid, the more I hear about this place, the more I feel she has no time left for our arguing. We may have already failed her."

Kagome frowned bitterly and glared again at Shiroihana. "If Kasai is already…" she stammered, searching for a word other than _dead_, "…already gone when we get there you can't expect him to owe you anything, right? You're not going to take Masuyo away anyway?"

"Perceptive priestess," Shiroihana murmured. Her smile was cold and clear as she shifted her arms and brought her small, pale hands up out of her sleeves and grasped the chain around her neck. It was made of a bizarre white metal and appeared heavy. At its end there was a round shape, a little darker in color, almost bronze. In the center a blackness as dark as obsidian but lacking any shine. As Shiroihana lifted it slightly from where it hung in the folds of her kimono and the plush of fur, Kagome felt something heavy in her limbs, weighing them down. She recoiled instinctually, cringing.

Shiroihana took note of it and lowered the necklace back to its discreet place on her chest. "I see you are a powerful priestess. Perceptive indeed." As she lowered her hands she brushed the necklace again, indicating it. "If she has died by the parasite's hands then I shall resurrect her. Monk, you cannot guarantee her life on your own."

Miroku nodded and his shoulders sagged with grief. "No I cannot."

"Then it is settled," Shiroihana said, sounding slightly smug. "Tonight you will stay here and tomorrow we will rescue your daughter." She rose to her feet with a slow, liquid grace, like clouds flowing across a sky, and moved toward the door. "Saya," she called, "Please escort the humans to a room where they can sleep. They are your responsibility for tonight."

"Mother," Sesshomaru called. When Shiroihana and Sesshomaru made eye contact Saya cringed between them as if she was in the line of fire and there were bullets flying around her. It was a quiet clash of titans. "Please remain here; I would like to speak with you."

"Of course," she answered and stepped back from the door. As she approached Sesshomaru she motioned to Saya and the girl jumped to her feet and scampered to Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome. She knelt and grabbed Kagome's hand with a wide but nervous smile.

"Come with me Aunt Kagome, monk Miroku. I'll take you some place nice…"

The humans moved after her sheepishly, awkwardly, aware that they did not belong inside Kagetsu palace. It felt as if they had bargained with the devil and sold another's soul to gain access to it. Only Kagome was able to see the majesty and beauty of the palace hallways that Saya led them through, of the walls and doors laced with gold and silver, of the terraces open to the mountain wind, of the view illuminated by the mysterious, eerie white and green orbs.

They were passing through spaces where once, long ago, Inutaisho had walked, but Miroku and Masuyo could barely see it through their grief and the hard, bitter press of tears behind their eyes. It was a high price to pay, but if it guaranteed Kasai's life it was worth paying.

* * *

Alone with his mother, Sesshomaru challenged her at last, a thing he had not dared to do while the humans and Saya were all present. "Mother, why do you wish to have a human child as a hostage?"

"Didn't I make it clear with the humans?" Shiroihana asked, smirking up at her son. She began walking the length of the room slowly. Her plush white fur trailed behind her, down from each elbow.

"I believe you were untruthful. You and Father only took human hostages from warlords while you were gaining land. There is no land in dispute here. These humans are not warlords." He narrowed his eyes on her back, allowing himself to show his full disdain for the crafty, mysterious, and powerful female before him. It had been hundreds of years and he could never best her_._ She was more educated simply because of her longer life, and she had the uncanny female trait of manipulative coercion. Teamed up with Inutaisho they had been an unstoppable force that destroyed enemies and created the Western Lands.

It was through her extreme intelligence that she had managed to stay alive in the Kagetsu palace, unmolested and unchallenged. As a woman she had no restraints, a very surprising place for a woman to be. Had she contested Sesshomaru's right to rule the Western Lands she could've even been an enemy, but Shiroihana was always the brains of an operation, never the ambition.

Now, however, was an exception to that and Sesshomaru anticipated that there was more to her decision to help the humans than she had revealed. She had taken initiative and orchestrated a bargain between herself and the humans, a very unusual thing since normally she avoided them to the point that she used _ghosts_ as guards.

"Perhaps I pitied the monk," his mother murmured. She had stopped beside a white painted wall where silvery snowflakes careened out of a gray-white storm. She traced the snowflakes with her claws daintily.

"You do not care for mortals," Sesshomaru reminded her, coldly.

"But you do, Sesshomaru. Perhaps I am emulating my son?" She peered at him over her shoulder, smiling lightly.

"You are not." Sesshomaru paused for a moment and then let his stance loosen while she watched, telling her that he had dropped his guard. "Perhaps you plan on eating the monk's child."

Shiroihana made a face of revulsion and turned to face him as she shrugged her shoulders up and down, adjusting the fluff there. "Disgusting. Humans taste like pig's meat. Disgusting."

"Have you grown tired of Hanone, then?" Sesshomaru asked, taking a step closer to her.

Shiroihana scowled. "Hanone is a precious child. How could you even suggest such a thing?"

Sesshomaru tensed again, his spine stiffening with his mounting frustration. His mother never did something without purpose, but as usual she was adept at hiding her underlying plot. "What do you gain from this arrangement, Mother?"

"What a cruel son you are," Shiroihana taunted him. "So demanding, so suspicious. And after all of the kindnesses I have given you throughout your life."

"Enough," Sesshomaru growled. "Tell me what you're planning."

She closed her eyes and raised one hand slowly to stroke the fluff around her shoulders. "You are such a fool at times. Impatient like your father and almost as block-headed. You heard the monk speak of this parasitic demon that holds his daughter yet you could not see beyond yourself. I am doing what I must to learn of this parasite for the sake of curiosity."

"I do not believe you," Sesshomaru told her.

Shiroihana slipped past him. "Believe what you will, my son. Goodnight."

In the blink of an eye she had vanished through the open sliding door, out of the white room and into the red mahogany wood of the hallway. Behind her Sesshomaru was as suspicious as he had been before speaking to her. _Typical_, he thought. She had led him in circles and now she was laughing at him somewhere across the palace. She was less of a dog and more of a fox. Her plot would uncover itself in time, of that he had no doubt.

* * *

After her first bath and her resulting escape attempt, Kasai found that life fell into a sick normalcy. It was relief and comfort compared to the hell of her first days as one of the Chosen, but human beings were accustomed to surviving and coping with incredible, hellish situations. Kasai found that she was very human in that respect. She grew numb and she found ways to hide as she fought to survive with her sanity intact.

In her new, luxurious kimono after the first bath, Kasai followed Master Dani and the other Chosen to the pavilion where the "Worship" ceremonies took place every morning. Not just herself and the other three—Kenpo, Hato, and Osore—but the others that hadn't been infected with Master Dani's spore like the priestess Mirimi. There had been thirteen Chosen after the very first culling, then four had received the kiss that infected them. That left nine other Chosen, but in their first worship Kasai counted only eight.

The ninth was the boy that Master Dani had brought in to them after they had rejected his first cannibal soup. It was the boy that he had forced them to eat alive.

Looking at them, Kasai realized that the Chosen that didn't carry Master Dani's offspring were their personal servants. They cleaned the room that they were imprisoned in, they had dressed Kasai before the worship ceremony, and they had scrubbed Kasai in the bath. But instinct told her that the other Chosen were not merely servants, one by one they would also become meals.

_We will eat them,_ Kasai realized as she looked between Kenpo, Osore, and Hato and the other monks and priestesses that sat behind Master Dani at the worship ceremony.

Master Dani surprised her when he had his other disciples, the hundreds of monks and priestesses that he simply bit on occasion, bring up mounds of mouth-watering food: dumplings, rice, fish, pickled plums, cherry desserts, and even a roasted pheasant. He allowed all of the Chosen to eat their fill in front of his massive congregation. Kasai gorged herself freely and for a very brief time she was able to forget that there was a parasite growing inside of her, and that she had been forced to drink human blood and eat human flesh. For a time she did nothing but taste and rejoice and hope.

And then she realized why Master Dani had done what he'd done. Their meal was so delicious and so generous—and on top of that their clothes were rich and luxurious too—that the rest of the congregation stared up at the twelve Chosen with hatred. They saw that the Chosen's neck bruises were healing, which meant that Master Dani was not biting them. They saw favoritism.

When Kasai stopped eating long enough to stare back at the hundreds of watchful eyes, she saw clearly that they were ready to slaughter all twelve of the Chosen for their favored position. They believed that for some odd reason Master Dani had decided to spare them while the rest of them rotted and slowly died. It did not occur to the congregation that _sixteen_ disciples had been picked as Chosen, but now only _twelve_ were left eating before them.

While the Chosen ate Master Dani perused the congregation and bit into a few of them at his discretion. Kasai hardly noticed him at all.

After the worship the Chosen returned to Master Dani's private quarters and Kasai saw where the eight monks and priestesses that didn't carry Master Dani's offspring stayed. There was a large cage in a room adjacent to their tiny prison room. It would leave them very little room to move. They would be squished up against one another, wondering what was going to happen next, if Master Dani would come and kill another of them for the cannibal soups that he fed to Hato, Osore, Kenpo, and Kasai. Yet she longed to be one of those Chosen, not a member of the elite four that carried Master Dani's abominations lodged against their spines.

In the evening they ate another of the cannibal soups. Master Dani sat beside each of them and watched over them with a kindly smile. Kasai glared at him over the bowl and hated herself for how easy it was to swallow the foul liquid. Liquid sin, liquid damnation. There was no greater taboo.

As she fell asleep that night, still wearing her grass-stained white silk under robe, Kasai felt the tingles course through her back. Her toes and fingers flicked and a muscle twitched under her eye. _It's growing and he is winning…_

But exhaustion claimed her and the next day they awoke to the same routine: a bath, a worship ceremony where they ate heartily, and then the cannibal soup at night. At bath time Kasai again thought of drowning herself but found that she didn't have the courage. When the other Chosen, this time Mirimi was one of them, guided her to another room to dress her in the grass-stained robe, there was no window in the room. Kasai stayed where she was, placid, wondering if Master Dani would feed them at worship as he had the day before. When the answer turned out to be yes she grew a little colder inside as she accepted his food and saw the growing hate on the faces of the other monks and priestesses. If she escaped Master Dani now they would not help her at all.

After the cannibal soup that night Kenpo spoke to her again. He did not cry this time; he was beyond it just as she was.

"Have you felt something in your arms and your legs…?" he asked her.

"All the time," she answered, closing her eyes.

"It's the thing, isn't it?" Kenpo rubbed his eyes and in the dull light Kasai saw that the muscles in his temples were flickering wildly, uncontrolled. She had felt the same thing in her head and in the orbits of her eyes all day. "We're running out of time…"

"I know," she whispered.

"Tomorrow," Kenpo said. It was one word, but the impact of it was the same as that of a hammer pounding on Kasai.

"What about Hato and Osore?" she asked. Her body had begun to shake.

"I will tell them our plan."

She drew in a long breath, fighting the darkness that was spreading through her, the horrible weight at the thought of death. "We'll go to hell, Kenpo. We are damned. Our souls…"

"We're already in hell," Kenpo answered, solemnly. "It's as you said, I won't let him win. This thing inside me, I won't let it attain life. The only thing that can redeem our souls now is if we kill ourselves to stop Master Dani from harming future generations."

It was her argument, but with a twist that Kasai couldn't dispute. She nodded. "Tomorrow."

As Kenpo left her to speak with Osore and Hato, Kasai covered her face with both hands and cried in silence, mourning the life she had only just begun and now she would have to sacrifice it. She prayed that the higher powers would pity her when she opened her lungs to the water of tomorrow's bath. _Forgive me,_ she prayed, _I did my best…_

* * *

A/N: no matter what, don't look at that last line and think of Dane Cook. Oh crap! I just did and so did all of you! Shit! Someone shit on the coats!

Okay, in all seriousness now, I take my interpretation of Sessmom a lot from the manga (I reread the chapters before writing this to examine her character carefully) but I also drew inspiration from an artist on Deviantart. Unlike me she can apparently write and illustrate excellently what she does and under one picture I read her view on Sessmom and I thought…you know what, that makes a LOT of sense! I haven't read her fanfic because I didn't want to be copying her anymore than I already was by being influenced by her take on Sessmom. Anyway a last note I wanted to include is about the name I picked for her. I gave her a pretty, descriptive name (it means loosely I think "white blossom") because I thought her hair pins (is that what they are?) looked like blossoms and obviously she shares the white coloration of hair. Although she has a pretty name I want that to contrast with her character. She is not just a pretty name and face, some gentle court lady. I think she made that clear in the manga and I hope I did an acceptable job portraying her. Anyway, link to see the picture I talked about: http: /foo-dog. /art/ A-Family-Portrait-83697116 (just copy and paste and remove all the random spaces.)

Next time:

Kasai:

_Master Dani's words taunted her as she understood them days too late: Demon slayer, haven't you realized it yet? She had envisioned herself as the carrier of the next parasitic demon. She had imagined that it would use her body, suck it dry and then hatch out of her like an egg, splitting her apart like an overripe melon. In reality the parasite was smoother and cleaner than that. The tingles in her hands, arms, legs, and feet should've told her all along. The parasite used her. It controlled her. _

_She was not the host, she was the parasite. _

Miroku:

"_You mean that we will be able to truly rescue Kasai tomorrow?" Miroku asked. His expression had lightened with relief; his shoulders were a little higher. Suddenly it seemed that Shiroihana had offered him a better deal than he'd realized. _

Koinu:

_And the last thing he had said to her before the seabird had taken her away was: __"Damn you Kasai! You bitch! Get off me!"_

_He lowered his head and sniffed at his tears, trying to banish them as he started to hum once more. "In the middle of the night…__I know I'm searching for something. __Something so undefined that it can only be seen by the eyes of the blind. In the middle of the—"_


	25. Innocence

A/N: The song used at the end here is Billy Joel's "River of Dreams." I love that song. This is the chapter that I've chosen to have the same name as the entire story. I tried to find another title, and I thought "River of dreams" for the song and for Kasai's part would work nicely, but so does Innocence as a title because it's an example of multiple characters and their search, or attainment of innocence (kinda anyway?). This was my favorite chapter I think. Kasai's part isn't yucky, Koinu's felt beautiful to me, and Saya is here being cute. Yay! To **New Fan**: I missed you! And **Adrea:** All shall come clear as far as Return is concerned. Either later in this story in some further hints, or in Return itself of course.

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo faced off against Sesshy and Shiroihana. Shiroihana agreed to help them herself, but at a rather expensive price. Sess questioned her about why she did it but she led him around in circles without answering. A typical move for her. Kasai and Kenpo decided to drown themselves in their next bath because although they are adjusting to their cannibal soup and Master Dani's cruelty has lightened a little as of late, they're feeling his little Master Danis starting to take over and they all agree that can't be allowed to happen.

* * *

**Innocence**

The next day dawned too soon for Kasai. The other Chosen arrived and pulled them out of their beds with their usual dark, unhappy moods and moved in slow motion. Kasai stared at the others out of the corners of her eyes. Kenpo, Hato, and Osore all kept their eyes lowered pathetically as they went through the motions of life and obedience.

But that day was not like the past two with the gentle monotony of bath, food, and cannibal soup. Instead when the other Chosen brought Kasai and the others into the main hall there were no large tubs filled with warm water. The bath was skipped completely. The other Chosen separated them into four different rooms as if they had just finished their baths and pulled on their outer kimono robes, brightly colored and patterned with kanji. They combed Kasai's hair and pinned it up with small, sharp metal pins. Kasai took note of the pins and wondered if she had the courage to use them as the tool to end her life. She closed her eyes in defeat when she accepted that she did not have that courage.

Finally the other Chosen brought Kasai, Kenpo, Osore, and Hato out to the main hall. Master Dani was seated on his small platform like a true master monk. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be mediating. His position made Kasai recall her father meditating. She remembered the bright, beautiful gold of his staff and how it reminded her of something else—golden eyes…

Kasai sat on a cushion in the rich red and black kimono with the grass-stained white robe underneath and faced Master Dani's platform alongside Hato, Kenpo, and Osore. The other, uninfected Chosen disappeared after they had taken their spots, though Kasai didn't see where.

It was a long time before Master Dani opened his tiny eyes and started speaking with a deep frown. "My children, I am disappointed in you. I have seen your plans and they trouble my heart. After the great work that your Chosen brothers and sisters go to in preparing your baths each morning and dressing you for each worship ceremony—how could you plan such a cruel thing?"

Hato burst into tears and fell forward, sobbing into her hands unabashedly.

"Please Master Dani," Kenpo stammered, bowing as he begged, "I ask you not to force us to…harm someone else…"

"My son," Master Dani murmured, "you are the source of the problem. Have you no appreciation for the life I have given you? I have exalted you above the others here. You will live many times over your natural years, but you would gladly throw this gift away." With a grunt, Master Dani got to his feet and awkwardly stepped down from his platform. He walked up to Kenpo and stood over him.

Kasai, no more than two feet away from Kenpo on his right, tensed. Her hatred swelled inside her, growing astronomically, but her body was detached from her will. Her head moved, jerking from side to side as if she were dizzy while her fingers and legs twitched. The thing inside her, and the ridge on her neck, worked to keep her still even as she felt Kenpo's death approaching. She was powerless—_weak._ What good was a demon slayer that could not slay a demon? What use was a woman with spiritual powers who could not purify a monster threatening her and the people she cared about?

"My children are growing fast," Master Dani said, sighing, "but their human minds resist."

Abruptly Master Dani stepped to the right and reached with lightning speed, wrapping his meaty hand around Kasai's neck. Pain exploded up through her skull and down into her shoulders. Kasai screamed and fell forward, writhing with pain as her body quaked around her.

"I know you now, my daughter. You are strongest and fastest, like fire driven by the wind. You appear obedient, but I know your mind. You are the same as your ancestor, the man that killed my master so long ago. How beautiful that his descendent should come to me with the powers of a priestess and that she should carry my finest progeny inside her." His words were gibberish to Kasai, meaningless. She fought to sit up, grinding her teeth together with effort and agony.

Master Dani slipped past her, moving back to Kenpo. As he had with Kasai the parasite reached behind the young monk's head and rubbed his fingertips over Kenpo's neck, over the ridge in his cervical vertebrae. Kenpo's body fell limp and he screamed with pain, just as Kasai had.

"I have given you the life you longed for, my son. You wished for a break from your family's life in the fields. You wanted peace and quiet away from a village filled with bustling children. You wanted a life of silence and respect and knowledge, but a mortal's life is too short for such dreams. It is only with my progeny awakening inside you that you will be allowed to attain such a wish. I will choose you to run this temple and the shrine grounds in my stead…"

While Master Dani went on with his strange speech, Kasai sat up and stared at the parasitic demon, gathering her strength and her will. In the beginning of her time as one of the Chosen, Kasai had faced agony, sickness, and weakness. Now physically she was recovered though the thing inside her was growing stronger with her. She tried not to think as she readied herself, as her hands curled into small, hard fists like rocks. _Let's see if he can read my mind right now…_

Kasai hollered an unintelligible battle cry and launched herself at Master Dani. She was stunned when she felt her body impact his, and even more amazed when she felt him wobble and start to fall. Breathing hard, Kasai searched her mind for a weapon as she heard Master Dani snorting, trying to catch himself with one hand on his platform.

_My hair…_

She reached up to her head and pulled the pin out, clutching it in her fist. Kasai advanced on him, crawling over the floor, slapping her palms on the hard surface, slipping on the silk of her kimono. Master Dani had not fallen completely, but he had caught himself on one knee. He twisted his thick, round head and stared at her through his shiny, beady black eyes. His bulbous lips curled up in a sly smile.

Pain tore through Kasai's head and her arms and legs jerked, giving out. Crying out as she sensed her inevitable defeat, Kasai used the last of her momentum and her hatred to lash out with the hair pin. It stabbed into Master Dani's robe, tearing the fabric and then it hit something hard and stuck. _Flesh! _Even as Kasai's vision tried to fade out with her pain she felt triumph.

Then her body fell abruptly numb all around her. Kasai blinked. Her cheek was pressed against the floor, her arms and legs lying uselessly around her. Master Dani moved in front of her, regaining his composure.

"An excellent demonstration of your defiance, my fire! They say that the greatest rewards stem only from the hardest work. It seems you are determined not to make it easy for me!" Master Dani bent down with difficulty and pulled the hair pin from where Kasai had stuck him in the calf.

Watching him move, and feeling her own inability to do anything, Kasai tried to speak and when she found that she could she yelled, "Kenpo! Get him! Stop him! Osore, Hato!"

"You waste your breath, my daughter," Master Dani told her, laughing lightly. "The time has come for them and for you."

"You bastard!" Kasai screamed. "I'll kill you!"

"Certainly one of you will," Master Dani said, matter-of-factly. "Demon slayer, haven't you realized it yet?"

Kasai ground her teeth together and ignored his taunting. "Kenpo! Please! Fight him!" She couldn't see him and she couldn't force her body to roll over to face any of the Chosen. When she twisted her neck and rolled her eyes up she could just make out Master Dani's movement as he shuffled up the line of his Chosen, reaching out to Hato or Osore. She heard the children, both of them now, whimpering and crying pathetically. Yet there was nothing from Kenpo.

Master Dani spoke out then, loudly and with triumph ringing in his voice, "You see? Watch him rise. My son—Kokushi."

Kasai heard a shuffling sound like bare feet stumbling over the hard wood floor, and then a faint moaning sound. She recognized the voice as Kenpo's. "Kenpo!" she cried, "Kenpo! Fight him! Fight it!" Something was growing inside Kasai, a darkness, a foreboding. Something had happened or was still happening…

Kenpo at last answered her in a quiet, raspy voice. "Sister…"

Osore cried out, "Kenpo…?"

"I am not Kenpo. I am Kokushi." The voice was Kenpo's, but the words…

Kasai felt pressure building behind her eyes, mirroring the one growing in her chest. It was defeat and despair. _We were too late. We let him win! Now there are five blood-sucking, priestess and monk enslaving parasites. _"Kenpo," she choked on his name, aware that the boy possessing that name had died, replaced by the parasite.

Master Dani's words taunted her as she understood them days too late: _Demon slayer, haven't you realized it yet?_ She had envisioned herself as the carrier of the next parasitic demon. She had imagined that it would use her body, suck it dry and then hatch out of her like an egg, splitting her apart like an overripe melon. In reality the parasite was smoother and cleaner than that. The tingles in her hands, arms, legs, and feet should've told her all along. The parasite _used_ her. It controlled her.

She was not the _host,_ she _was_ the parasite.

Master Dani smiled in her mind as the fullness of the realization hit her. Master Dani was immune to spiritual power because his body had begun as a monk or priest. Over time he had transformed, losing his human hair to make insect bristles, and he had grown a second pair of arms that he kept hidden beneath his robes. He had become an ugly parasite, but walking on the street he could've still passed as human because he _was_ partly human. The youkai parasite had always used its human partner as a shield, making it impossible to purify…

And when her parents arrived to rescue her they would find her living as a priestess and her parasite lips would lie to them as the youkai within her preserved itself and they would believe her. If it was her father that came Kasai and the other Chosen could feed off his blood, or her brother Tisoki's, or any humans if they felt like it.

"No," she sobbed and the tears fell. "No, please no…"

"You see?" Master Dani asked, speaking to Hato and Osore. "The boy has become my son and accepted his new name. You will all be initiated. It was a difficult road but now Kokushi has arrived and one by one the rest of you will follow. The boy would have asked you to die to disobey me, as would this faithless girl," Master Dani paused long enough to nudge her harshly with one foot. "But you see that obedience brings you into my family, into my home and you will know happiness my children, you will know peace that you never could've known as a mere mortal…"

"Kenpo," Kasai cried, sobbing pathetically as she saw his face in her memory in the dark, crying as he asked her to die with him so that he wouldn't be alone. It hadn't mattered in the end. He had died alone inside his own mind and body.

She began to feel abruptly dizzy and sleepy. Kasai fought to keep her eyes open. She was aware of her chest rising and falling erratically, of the sensation that she really was drowning. She tried to shake her head. "No…not yet…" _I can't let go, if I do I'll be just like Kenpo. If my family finds me they could be enslaved here too—I can't fall asleep!_

"See young ones?" Master Dani asked, addressing Hato and Osore. "Soon your ringleader will join Kokushi. She will grow still and then she will rise and be renamed Kisei, my first daughter, the beauty of the temple…"

His words grew dimmer until she could no longer hear them. The fierceness of Kasai's will had kept her from succumbing before Kenpo though her parasite was the strongest as deemed by Master Dani, but now not even that could keep her from letting her eyes drift shut.

She swam away into a pleasant dream where her memories enveloped her.

Her mother moved her small child-hands over Hiraikotsu when she was five years old. Sango whispered into her ear, _"Someday you'll be a great demon slayer."_

Miroku cuddled her in his lap while they stared into the cooking fire and hummed songs for her. She could feel his fingers combing through her hair, tickling. _"You're growing up so fast, Kasai…"_

Kohimu and Tisoki raced with her and played tag under the sun and under the rainclouds. They laughed loudly to pretend they couldn't hear their mother's voice when she called for them to come inside and eat. She stood over Masuyo while her younger brother held her sword Burikko awkwardly for the very first time. She laughed with him when their poles clanged together and she lost her grip or he stumbled and fell. Kasai held Koudo and Riki for her mother, she helped feed them and felt their small hands wrap around her fingers.

Interspersed with the uncountable memories of her mother, her father, and her brothers, Kasai saw Inuyasha, Kagome, Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo. The fox's puffy tail and his broad smile. Inuyasha's strong arms, his red haori and the legendary sword at his hip. Akisame's wild, messy black hair, the way her fangs gleamed in her mouth when she smiled. Kagome's gentle hands, her magic pain-killing pills, her warm laughter. And Koinu's face appeared time and time again, smiling warmly, holding her hand, hugging her when Kohimu or Tisoki had refused to play with her, and his soft voice when he spoke of anything that mattered to him, anything that he found beautiful or reverent. She saw his blushing cheeks in the dark after she had forced her kiss on him years ago, his drooping ears, and his shy, adorable eyes.

She felt a soft warmth close around her hand and in her mind's eye it was every one of her loved ones all at once. She did not think of death or dying, and she didn't think or realize that she was leaving control of her body behind. Her lips tugged in a smile and she closed her hand around that warmth, accepting it.

* * *

Master Dani had hold of the teenage girl's hand. For a moment it lied there limp and warm, alive but unmoving. Then it flicked with movement and closed around his hand. Master Dani smiled and pulled her up. The teenage girl rose unsteadily to her feet, using the platform that he had been sitting on earlier to foist herself into a half-standing, half crouching position. She was breathing hard, catching her breath. Her long black hair fell loose around her as she lifted her head and opened her violet eyes to look at the other Chosen.

Hato had her mouth covered with one hand in shock and terror. Osore called her name in a wavering voice, "Kasai?"

"No, this is Kisei, my daughter! Kisei," Master Dani said, patting her arm, "greet your brothers and sisters now, don't be shy."

Kisei parted her lips in a tiny, coy smile. "I am Kisei."

Kokushi, sitting on his cushion beside the trembling Hato and Osore, nodded at her pleasantly. "Hello Kisei, I am your brother Kokushi. I am fond of your face, sister. You are very beautiful."

Kisei looked away and blushed. "Thank you, brother."

* * *

After Saya escorted them to a large room with plush matting on the floors and walls with gold-flecked ink paintings, she stayed with them while they waited for servants to bring appropriate bedding. In the years that had passed since Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo had last seen her, Saya had grown several inches higher and her hair had lengthened and at some point the front had been fashioned into a long line of straight, even bangs. The style was similar to Shiroihana's and of course the resemblance between grandmother and granddaughter was startling.

"Father told me that Akisame is well. Father saw Uncle too and he's fine," Saya said, offering reassurance to her aunt swiftly. "I asked Father if he fought with Uncle Inuyasha and he said no, so everyone is okay." She looked between Miroku and Kagome and bit her small lip. "Kasai is with a parasite?"

Miroku nodded solemnly but didn't say anything. Saya watched him expectantly for a time but the monk avoided her gaze, lost in his own worries and inner turmoil. When Saya turned her attention on Masuyo her expression fell with sadness. The young boy, barely a teenager, sat like his father with his head bowed in misery, thinking of his sister, his sick mother, and his missing sister. He was wondering which of his siblings Shiroihana would demand as payment for her aid.

"Everyone is so sad," Saya murmured. She pulled on her hair absently and focused on the floor. "Mother always says chin up and smile but everything's so heavy when I'm sad, sometimes I just can't."

Kagome smiled at last, sensing Saya's need for establishing a connection with them. She clung to them now not only because she liked them, but because she felt guilty for what had happened. Kagome pitied the girl and reached out to touch Saya's face and feel her smooth, silky white hair. "Wow Saya!" she exclaimed. "Your hair is so beautiful. If Akisame was here she'd be jealous of you for sure."

"Thank you very much, Aunt Kagome," Saya said, dropping into a deep bow as if the Emperor himself had complimented her, but after a pause she sheepishly looked up and added, "But Mother's hair is prettier than mine. And Father's too. And I wish I had black hair like you, Aunt Kagome. It's shiny when it's black."

"Saya," Miroku said, suddenly looking up at the hanyou girl.

Saya shifted to face him more directly and fell into another unnecessarily deep bow. "Yes monk Miroku?"

"The lady of this palace said that she would take us to the place where Kasai is. How does she plan on doing this?"

"Lady Shiroihana uses the sky," Saya answered in a solemn, deep tone. She was mimicking Shiroihana's voice.

"She uses the sky?" Miroku asked, seeking clarification.

"I'm sure Lady Shiroihana is assembling the flyers now." Saya sat up and made a face. "Lady Shiroihana calls them with the Meidou-seki. They scare me but they're really, really fast. Lady Shiroihana can leave for the continent at sunrise and be back before the sun rises again."

"Like an airplane," Kagome said, startled by the news.

"You mean that we will be able to truly rescue Kasai tomorrow?" Miroku asked. His expression had lightened with relief; his shoulders were a little higher. Suddenly it seemed that Shiroihana had offered him a better deal than he'd realized.

Saya nodded. "But don't look down, monk Miroku. It makes me dizzy and the flyers stink." She held her nose to demonstrate.

"Who is this lady going to take hostage?" Masuyo demanded sourly. "She can't take Kasai, not after what she's been through and not with Mom sick."

Miroku turned toward his son, suddenly alarmed. "What? Sango was—your mother was sick?"

Masuyo blinked as he realized that in the bickering about a destination and in their constant worry for their mother and their sister, Masuyo and his brothers had never told their father that Sango had seemingly been ill. "Uhh," he stammered, abruptly nervous, "Mother was sick to her stomach a lot the last time I saw her."

Kagome shook her head and sighed. She too had forgotten this detail. "Sango told me she was pregnant. She was really worried about it. If what Sesshomaru said is true and she's with Inuyasha then she's safe but Inuyasha won't know what to do with her at all…"

Miroku fell silent. His jaw squared, snapping taut with the weight and pressure of yet another worry. They had hoped that Sango had gone past her primary fertile years. Every pregnancy was dangerous, but the older Sango became the more dangerous each child that she carried was. Even the miscarriages could kill her. And yet at the same time Miroku always welcomed the prospect of another child, especially if the baby was a girl.

Masuyo had blanched at the news about his mother. He stared down at his hands in his lap, embarrassed. "I wondered about it, I mean Kasai and me, we talked about it once. It was her idea and I said I thought Mom couldn't be but…" his head drooped lower and his chin trembled as he fought tears. Without warning he looked up and glared at Saya. "That lady of yours," he snapped, trembling, "can't you stop her? If she asks for my sister Mother won't have anyone else to help her with a new baby! Kohimu and Tisoki are always _busy,_ I'm supposed to be training, Koudo and Riki are too young…"

Miroku reached out and laid a restraining hand on Masuyo, shaking him slightly. "Masuyo, stop yelling. Don't be upset. The decision was not within Saya's power to control and for what the lady is offering—Kasai will be safe, even if she does not go home with us."

Saya stayed frozen, staring at Masuyo's teary blue eyes and his messy, disheveled brown hair. Slowly she blinked and scooted backward a little to bow in front of Masuyo. "I apologize for Lady Shiroihana, Masuyo. Father calls Lady Shiroihana manipulative. He says no one can outwit her and everyone falls into her trap—but Lady Shiroihana would never harm your sister here. I promise you."

"We know, Saya." Kagome reached out and touched Saya's shoulder, trying to get the girl out of her bow. "It's okay, we are really grateful that she will help us." Kagome glanced to Masuyo and Miroku for backup on that statement and found that although Miroku tried to appear genuine as he nodded, Masuyo made no attempt at all. The young teen crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at the floor. His face was deeply troubled, dark with his brooding.

The door to their room slid open then and four short creatures waddled in. They were geckos, all of them colored brightly in oranges, reds, and yellows. Wrapped in their curled, prehensile tails the geckos carried the sleeping mats and blankets that the humans required. Saya turned at the sound of the opening door and the sucking, plopping sound of the geckos' feet on the floor. She took a last long look around at Kagome, Miroku, and then finally sadly at Masuyo.

"I have to go now; Sister will be looking for me."

"Really?" Kagome asked cheerfully, still trying to lighten the mood and make sure Saya left them on a positive note. "I've never met your sister before. Can she come and say hello?"

Saya shook her head. "Little Sister is shy. She's still like a little baby." She hopped off the floor, revealing a surprising suppressed energy. As the geckos slipped past her, Saya bobbed her head in a last bow at the door. "Goodbye and good luck monk Miroku, Aunt Kagome—Masuyo. I will try and help you if I can."

The hanyou girl disappeared in the mahogany hall in a flash of bright, white hair. Masuyo looked up at the last moment as she bounded away. His brow furrowed as he concentrated, thinking hard.

* * *

They had at last found a real lead. With barely any sleep in two days of steady, heated traveling, they had passed through Niigata and picked up information concerning a massive shrine and temple that had a dark reputation. Demons coming and going, human bones littering the trail leading up the mountainside to the location of the shrine and temple, and sometimes dying, starving monks or priestesses would stumble down the slope and wander into the flat plains of Niigata, asking for a healer.

And, most promising of all, they had seen the massive bird pass through.

From their spot outside of Niigata Inuyasha and his group could reach the temple and shrine in less than twenty-four hours. They slept for a few hours on the banks of a large, sluggish river. River boats passed by during the night and the lights of their lanterns and torches, as well as the sounds of their paddles, afforded Inuyasha, Akisame, Shippo, and Koinu little sleep.

In the final haul of their long journey of rescue, Koinu found himself up and awake, restless as he stared north and smelled the wind, picking out the stink of the distant saltwater. He kept a spot beside Akisame, an assignment given to him by Inuyasha while the hanyou bedded down near Sango. He was like her car, waiting to be started in case of emergency. Every day the group expected Sango's body to miscarry the baby inside her under the stress of their journey. Inuyasha repeatedly told her that she should stay in Niigata with Nobe and her sons while he, Shippo, Koinu, and Akisame went on. Sango always refused.

As a boat passed by on the river, with a man onboard singing in a warbling voice like a bird, a ballad of war and honor, Koinu started humming his own song. It was one that Kagome had taught him and it would not be uttered again for about five hundred years.

"_In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep, from the mountains of faith, to the river so deep. I must be looking for something, something sacred I lost. But the river is wide, and it's too hard to cross…"_

Akisame stirred next to him and kicked him in the calf with a grunt. "Shut up."

"You weren't sleeping," Koinu pointed out blandly. He cleared his throat quietly and began the song again: "_In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep. Through the valley of fear, to a river so deep. I've been searching for something taken out of my soul. Something I'd never lose, something somebody stole…"_

"You're going to give me nightmares," she whined, covering her ears and closing her eyes again.

Koinu ignored her and lowered his voice into a humming as he pictured his mother's face smiling and Kasai's openmouthed laughing. But other darker images crept into his mind: Bones littering the trail to the shrine and the temple. Talismans that turned away spiritual attacks and crumbled into chalky powder. Monks and priestesses that wandered onto Niigata plains delirious and dying. He turned and watched his sister as his humming faded and failed. Akisame was dressed as a priestess still, in white and red. Presumably they would find Kasai in similar clothes, but she was a demon slayer, not a priestess. She was not quiet and reserved or shy. She was loud, she was uncertain, she was strong.

He stared at his sister's face, slackening as she fell asleep. "_I miss you,"_ he moved his lips to make the words but didn't give them sound. He was speaking to his sister, but also to his mother and Sango, but especially to Kasai. _"We all missed you,_" he stopped, blinking hard as pressure built up behind his eyes, the desire to cry when he tried to imagine the horrors that Kasai had gone through, unable to escape and trapped by her spiritual powers, once a great source of pride for her. He sighed, looking at his hands sitting useless in his lap and whispered,_ "But I've missed you a lot longer than that."_

He recalled Kasai's clumsy attack two years previously, her sloppy kiss. Koinu brushed his lips, tapping them faintly to mimic the pressure of her touch. It wasn't the same, but his memory of the event was tainted with embarrassment and buried. What had it meant? Would he ever know? Was it too late now?

Koinu did not know what romantic love was, he had never given it much consideration. He understood devotion to his parents, his sister, to Shippo, to Sango, Miroku, Kasai, and all of her brothers. The kiss Kasai had given him was an unwelcome, forced introduction to that world of romantic love. It had gotten in the way of what he _did_ feel for her, what he had always felt for her. Up until that kiss she had been as constant as Akisame in his life. He had never gotten over that kiss, yet he had missed her, she had always lingered in the back of his mind, beautiful, fascinating, and infuriatingly confusing.

And the last thing he had said to her before the seabird had taken her away was: _"Damn you Kasai! You bitch! Get off me!"_

He lowered his head and sniffed at his tears, trying to banish them as he started to hum once more. _"In the middle of the night…__I know I'm searching for something.__ Something so undefined that it can only be seen by the eyes of the blind. In the middle of the—"_

Inuyasha hefted himself up then in his spot next to Sango and glared with only one eye at his son. He growled, "Koinu—shut the fuck up already."

Koinu's ears lowered with acute embarrassment. Akisame could tell him to be quiet and he had the chance of ignoring her, his father was a different story. "Sorry, Father."

"Go to sleep," Inuyasha told him, gentler now. "I ain't stopping tomorrow."

Koinu nodded. "I know."

Across the other sleepers, Kohimu was also awake, listening to Koinu's song and remembering his father's words concerning the pup. How did Koinu treat his sister? Kohimu heard it over and over again in the pup. The answer was patience and Kohimu had very little of it. While he didn't think all that highly of Koinu's more thoughtful, gentle nature, it certainly effective in creating a close-knit family while Kohimu's harshness and teasing had alienated him from Kasai and Masuyo, and he doubted that Koinu thought much of him for all of the teasing he'd put the pup through concerning his sword _Izoukago._

_Patience,_ Kohimu thought as he tried to close his eyes and imagine his sister smiling at him rather than frowning or staring at him with hurt or bitterness glittering in her eyes. _Patience…_

* * *

A/N: Okay Kasai is NOT dead. As you clearly saw she got right back up—but now she's Kisei, just like Kenpo is Kokushi. (Both those new names are terms for parasites btw)

I want to leave a special note about Kohimu. I feel an attachment to his minor subplot because I have two younger sisters and like Kohimu I mistreated my youngest sister. I was "best buds" with my nearest sister, with three years between us the difference was miniscule, but as we were growing up my youngest sister was six years away from me in age and I was a bitch going through adolescence. The result is that now that she's sixteen and I'm 22 I look at her and see that I screwed it up. Me, my fault. A lot of it came out of the fact that she and I are a lot alike, we're both left-handed, creative, smart, bad with directions, blah-blah more and more and we didn't like being alike. As gentle of a person as I have been told I am I can be a real bitch and I was and she didn't deserve it and now there can be this stupid awkwardness between us like she's afraid of me or resents me because I was supposed to have been her caretaker and role model and I spit in her face instead. So enough sob-story. I see Kohimu and Kasai and that is myself and my little sister Holly. Patience, Shilyn, patience. Lesson here is be nice to your brothers and sisters, they're freaking awesome and you'll regret not being best buds with one or all or both of them later. 

Next time:

Saya/Shiroihana: _They walked through the halls, Saya in her short night robe with her bare feet pattering over the hardwood boards and Shiroihana in her long floor-dusting kimono. When Shiroihana wasn't looking down at her, Saya reached her free hand over and stroked the long white train of her grandmother's fluff. _

_Without looking down at her, Shiroihana murmured, "Saya, do not touch that."_

Masuyo/Shiroihana: _"I suppose you're going to say they like to eat humans a lot," Masuyo muttered, glaring at her. _

_Shiroihana's smile changed, rippling with real amusement at last. The boy had taken her bait. "On the contrary, these dragons are herbivorous. They rather like bamboo actually."_


	26. Stormy Skies

A/N: Thank you to **Courtney** who reviewed. Always good to hear from a reader, new or old. I'm glad if I could please you! This is a shorter chapter. As you read this one I am currently writing on a chapter very close to the end, Chapter 31: Two Deaths. I have everything completed up to that chapter. So I will make 30 chaps on this story and a bit beyond it.

So...this weekend I am going on a camping trip. I am not an outdoors kind of person. So it might very well suck. But the point is that I won't update Saturday or Sunday almost for sure. So drop me a line and pray the bears don't eat me!! You'll know I lived if you hear from me Sunday or Monday. Until then I'll supply this update and then one for _Return_ and that will be all for this week.

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Kasai is now Kisei, Master Dani's parasite daughter. Kenpo is Kokushi, her brother. Saya talked with Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo. Masuyo expressed his frustration at the thought of losing his sister to Lady Shiroihana. Miroku discovered that although she drives a hard price, he can rescue Kasai in a matter of hours with her modes of transportation. Meanwhile Inuyasha's expanding group has passed Niigata and they are on Kasai's trail, within twenty four hours. While they rested after two straight days of traveling, Koinu pondered his feelings for Kasai and sang a little Billy Joel, which made his dad and his sister angry. Kohimu listened in and wondered yet again if he will be too late to mend his broken relationship with Kasai and his other younger siblings.

* * *

**Stormy Skies**

When the first bright, gold-orange rays of sunshine pierced the sky in the east, Shiroihana left the terrace where she had spent the night alone, deep in thought and memory. She had not had humans in her palace for many years and the last time there had been a human girl around the age of the monk's daughter her husband had fallen in love with her and started the disastrous affair that ended in his death.

What a mess.

But she wasn't after the monk's daughter…not exactly.

Shiroihana strolled through the west wing of the palace bedrooms. There were uncountable empty bedrooms in Kagetsu palace but only a few of them were ever inhabited at one time presently. Currently the west wing housed Saya and Hanone, her granddaughters. Rather than having two separate rooms the girls shared one. They even used the same bedding like _peasants_, but if it made them happy Shiroihana had nothing against it.

She slid the door open to their bedroom and stepped inside. The room was large and mostly empty. A few papers were strewn about on the far side of the room where Hanone had been drawing pictures and practicing her kanji. There was also a small flute. Hanone had developed a love and a natural talent for music. The little inuyoukai girl was nine years old but developmentally she was about five or six. She would stay that way for several more slow, languid years, an extended opportunity to teach the youngster anything and everything she wanted.

"Saya," Shiroihana called.

The hanyou girl blinked and opened her eyes slowly. She was lying under the same covers on the same narrow strip of futon mattress as Hanone was. Saya had even gone so far as to curl around Hanone the way a sleeping cat tucks its body over its tail. Unlike Hanone, Saya looked her human age. Her quick aging and fast development continued to surprise Shiroihana—as did the child's uncanny resemblance to Sesshomaru.

Saya sat up in bed after detangling herself from Hanone. The inuyoukai girl kept on sleeping as was normal. Hanone required more sleep because she was growing. One day Hanone would barely need sleep, and food, but for now her needs surpassed Saya's. Later in life Saya would remain bound to humanlike patterns of eating and sleeping, but Hanone would leave them behind.

"My lady," Saya whispered as she sat up on the mattress and bowed in greeting to her grandmother.

"It's dawn, I've come to get you dressed," Shiroihana told her.

Saya glanced down at her loose, short sleeping robe. The little child's white hair had frizzled during the night and her bangs stuck up and out at bizarre, untamed angles. "It's very early," Saya observed.

"I need you to be my messenger this morning, Saya." Shiroihana stepped forward and extended her hand. Saya took it and hopped off the futon. She glanced back at Hanone for a moment with concern to make sure they hadn't disturbed her before she allowed herself to be led out by Shiroihana.

They walked through the halls, Saya in her short night robe with her bare feet pattering over the hardwood boards and Shiroihana in her long floor-dusting kimono. When Shiroihana wasn't looking down at her, Saya reached her free hand over and stroked the long white train of her grandmother's fluff.

Without looking down at her, Shiroihana murmured, "Saya, do not touch that."

"Sorry, my lady."

They passed through a wide terrace hidden from the sunlight. White mists hug over the beams supporting the roof like a horde of haunting ghosts. Saya stared at them in wonder, letting her little mouth hang open. Shiroihana meanwhile, was preoccupied and barely noticed them.

They moved into the north wing where Saya had housed the human guests the night before. Shiroihana opened the door to a small room and lead Saya inside. A dresser and a mirror were waiting for them. Saya sat down while Shiroihana picked out a kimono that would fit Saya. The dressing began in a ritual that Saya was very much accustomed to. She rose to her feet and spread her arms out while her grandmother pulled her first robe off and then tried not to shiver while Shiroihana folded things before she pulled the kimono onto Saya at last.

"What am I doing today again?" Saya asked as Shiroihana maneuvered her in front of the mirror and began to run a comb through Saya's hair.

"You know these humans, do you not?"

Saya started to nod but stopped when she realized that it would make Shiroihana's combing more difficult. "I do."

"Then you will be my voice when you wake them and bring them to me on the northern terrace. The servants are bringing the humans their food right now. After I have finished with your hair I want you to wish them good morning, say a few words, and then bring them to the northern terrace. Can you do that for me, Saya?" Shiroihana stopped pressed one finger into Saya's hair as she spoke and fumbled in her sleeve to produce a small, porcelain hairpin. She pushed it delicately into Saya's hair and smiled down at her creation. "You must ask your father for a bath for yourself and Hanone after I leave."

"Lady Shiroihana," Saya said, drawing a long, solemn breath. She stared at her grandmother's powerful, matriarchal image in the silvered slab of the mirror and prepared herself to challenge the powerful woman. "Why do you want monk Miroku's daughter?"

Shiroihana smiled smartly and chuckled as she turned to walk out the door, "Tell your father to fight his own battles, little Saya."

Confused, Saya leapt after her grandmother. "What do you mean? Father always fights alone…"

"Indeed," Shiroihana laughed. "Go Saya and bring the humans to me on the northern terrace—then find your father and ask for a bath. You should be properly dressed when Lady Ginrei gets here."

"Yes my lady," Saya murmured, pouting as she hurried away down the north wing, searching for the guestroom where she'd left Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo the night before.

* * *

After a startlingly exquisite breakfast, provided by the bizarre gecko maids and servants, Kagome, Miroku, and Masuyo found themselves following a rather subdued Saya down a long, open hallway. Saya opened a massive pair of sliding doors, with very little force, and brought them out into the open air of the northern terrace.

Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo opened their mouth wide in shock. Massive mahogany pillars supported the wood roof with its ornate carvings of dragons, butterflies, birds, flowers, and the odd occasional doglike beast with massive, fanged teeth. The woodwork was whimsical, as if the artist had had ADD but an overwhelming sense of beauty. Kagome had never seen anything like it in all of her studies, past and present.

They came to an intersection that formed a T-shape. Saya led them down the right path into a thickening bank of white mist. As the moist air hit their faces it condensed against their hot skin and rolled down their cheeks like tears. Kagome, Miroku, and Masuyo all wiped at their faces with surprise. Saya, anticipating it, had started pawing at her face before they'd hit the mist.

"Do you smell that stink?" she asked.

"No…" Miroku murmured—and then he did. It was a sharp, acrid smell, unfamiliar to his nose.

"Ugh," Masuyo groaned, covering his nose. "What is that?"

Kagome was the only one that had a limited reaction. "That smells like…kerosene?"

Through the white mist an orange light started, flickering and casting shadows like fire. In its wake there was a rush of black-blue smoke, curling up and out through the mist, defiling and tainting it. The humans slowed, losing confidence until Saya turned around and grabbed Miroku's hand bravely and pulled him along the path.

"Lady Shiroihana will protect you from the flyers—I tried to talk to her but…" Saya twisted around, looking for Miroku and then Masuyo but at that moment another burst of orange light, a fire, roared ahead of them on the terrace. Saya's words were forgotten as they reached their destination.

Lady Shiroihana stood before them, dark against the mist except for her white hair. Miraculously, though she stood in the middle of the condensing fog layer, her skin, hair, and her kimono fluff were all dry while the humans and Saya were sticky and damp. Shiroihana called to them, "Humans, are you afraid of my dragons?"

"Dragons?" Kagome asked, suddenly curious. She moved toward the side of the terrace and found, alarmingly, that there were no railings or fence posts on this section. "What dragons?"

Shiroihana pointed ahead of them where the bursts of flame had originated, but the humans saw nothing obvious there. Before they could waste time asking about it, Saya explained the mystery for them. "Lady Shiroihana's dragons change color to hide. Right now they are white and gray like the mists. But they can't change the way they smell." She made a face and released Miroku's hand to hold her nose.

"Saya," Shiroihana said, "You may go now, prepare for Lady Ginrei's arrival. Tell her I will return shortly."

Saya ducked in a quick bow and waved goodbye to the humans as she left. She cast one last long, sorrowful glance at Masuyo and then scampered off down the terrace, away from her grandmother's kerosene, chameleon dragons.

"Come," Shiroihana ordered.

They walked several more feet through the mist. Gradually shapes became clear: the darkness of the massive chains that must've acted as harnesses over the dragons, then the outline of the bizarre carriage. It was colored light blue, the color of the sky and it hovered in the air, waiting for occupants. Shiroihana moved to the edge of the terrace and reached out her slender, sleeve-coated arm for the carriage and with ease pulled it over the sheltered walkway. She lifted a flap and tucked it up before she turned back to the humans. "You must ride this if you expect to reach this girl and this parasite's temple before she perishes of course. Monk, do you treasure your female child enough to risk riding high over the earth with the likes of myself?"

Miroku stiffened beside Kagome and Masuyo. His eyes were glued to the carriage, to the empty space where the dragons supposedly hovered, invisible in the white-gray mist except for the spout of their fire, the rattle of their chains, and the slow _whoosh_ of their wings.

Without answering her, Miroku stepped forward to get into the carriage. Masuyo followed his father with a stern, tight jaw. Kagome moved after them while also trying to catch a good unhindered view of the chameleon-kerosene-dragons.

After Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo had boarded, Shiroihana stepped daintily inside and dropped the flap behind her. The carriage was very dark inside though surprisingly spacious. Masuyo found himself sitting beside the painted wall where a dog demon in its true form was captured in mid-leap, pouncing with a snarl. Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo fit on one side while Shiroihana easily took up the other side with just her mass of white shoulder fluff. She sat on the velvety bench seat sideways, taking up more than her fair share.

All three of her uncomfortable passengers pretended not to stare at her while Shiroihana slowly held her Meidou-seki necklace, carefully laying each of her fingers over its circumference before lifting it up from her chest. She puckered her lips slightly and blew into it, a slow, relaxed breath.

The carriage lurched forward, jostling even Shiroihana a little though she stayed calm while Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome all gripped the sides of the carriage or one another in wild fear, afraid that their lives were over. Shiroihana's golden eyes watched them with amusement as the carriage began to move rhythmically, swaying in a regular motion as the dragons adjusted to the load.

"I'm glad you hurried," she murmured, smirking lightly at them. "These dragons were getting hungry."

"I suppose you're going to say they like to eat humans a lot," Masuyo muttered, glaring at her.

Shiroihana's smile changed, rippling with real amusement at last. The boy had taken her bait. "On the contrary, these dragons are herbivorous. They rather like bamboo actually."

"How long until we reach this temple?" Miroku asked, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

"I should imagine two or three hours, monk. That is plenty of time for you to choose which child you will give me in payment."

"Hey," Kagome started, leaning forward and raising her voice to capture Shiroihana's attention.  
"There's something we forgot to mention. Miroku's wife is going to have another baby. And even if she doesn't she really needs Kasai with her for the company. I know I would go insane with as many sons as she—"

"Then I will take one of the monk's sons, perhaps." Her gaze flew to Masuyo and narrowed with interest. "Boy, how old are you?"

Masuyo's glaring intensified sevenfold. "Thirteen."

"And you have no spiritual powers to speak of?"

Slowly Masuyo shook his head. "Why? Are you afraid one of us will fry you in your sleep?"

Kagome tried and failed to hide her smile at the boy's words and Miroku started to speak in an apology, afraid that Shiroihana would drop them right out of the sky in punishment, but the inuyoukai woman was unfazed by the boy's remark. Instead she said, "You are clever, I see. After all you tried to slay a ghost in armor with a pebble."

Masuyo scowled, blushing at the way she twisted his deeds to make them sound miniscule. The sling was actually a potent weapon, and his aim had been excellent, but his choice of opponent had been beyond poor. "At least it bought us some time," he muttered.

"And your brothers? Do they fight with pebbles too?"

Miroku interrupted her questioning with one of his own. "Please my lady, for what purpose do you wish to hold one of my sons? How would they serve you?"

Shiroihana's gaze flicked once to Miroku and then slowly fell away, focusing on the blushing Masuyo yet again. "Tell me about your brothers, boy. What are they like and what are their ages?"

"My eldest brother will never agree to come here," Masuyo muttered. "But if you wanted a warrior Kohimu would be the best."

"Hmm," Shiroihana purred. Her lips pinched down tightly against one another, thinking. Masuyo and Miroku waited for a long time for her to speak once more but Shiroihana directed her attention to the fluttering screen flaps at the sides of their carriage. Her eyes closed and she almost appeared to fall asleep. Finally she said, "Enough talk for now. This chatter tires me."

Inwardly she thought: _I will have to meet each boy before I can make the final decision…_

* * *

In the early morning hours, after the group had already been walking for several hours, Sango's scent changed. Since running into her eldest sons and Nobe the proud matriarch of the demon slayers had refused to accept Inuyasha's help. She carried her own weight and held her head high on the road. She tried very hard to cover the fact that she could feel her body weakening and trying to betray her, but it was impossible to cover up her graying skin, and the heavy sweat on her brow even in the middle of the cool nighttime. Inuyasha watched her with his golden eyes, a hawk waiting for signs of weakness.

And now her scent told him they had arrived.

The hanyou had purposefully allowed Koinu, Shippo, and Akisame to lead while he stayed behind Sango, always downwind of her, taking in her scent. When the time came he was ready. Inuyasha sidled up next to her and kept his voice low as he whispered, "Sango something's wrong with your scent. You have to stop this, you're making yourself sick…"

"We're almost there," Sango hissed at him, breathing hard. "I can't give up now."

"There one more village just ahead. Let me take you there, Sango. You can rest while we go on ahead. We'll leave Aki and…" he stopped speaking as his mind reeled, searching for a good babysitter. If Sango was sick and bleeding on a mat that hardly qualified. _Shit, I can't leave Aki._ He had actually been hoping that he'd find some excuse to leave his daughter behind with part of their group. He didn't relish the thought of bringing her into battle.

Sango grinned as she anticipated Inuyasha's paranoid thinking process. "You can't leave Akisame behind. What if some village boy started admiring her and you weren't there to bite his head off?" As she started to laugh at her own joke, Sango cringed and her hands flew toward her abdomen. Her step faltered and Inuyasha moved in, pressing his shoulder against her to make sure she didn't lose her balance.

"Enough, Sango. You know I'm right. You have to stop!"

Sango gnashed her teeth together with pain, physical and emotional. She hung her head and Inuyasha smelled tears. "Don't waste any time with me, Inuyasha. Kasai can't afford it. Leave me with Tisoki and Nobe."

Confused, Inuyasha turned to peer back at the three boys. "Tisoki? But he's the only one of us that's spiritually—"

"That doesn't matter. Koinu will smell Kasai wherever she is, so will Akisame and Shippo. Tisoki is vulnerable but he has the best bedside manner of my sons except for Masuyo. He'll accept the assignment too."

"Okay," Inuyasha murmured, nodding in agreement. He knelt and barked at her, "Get on, we've got to hurry and I don't want you walking."

Sango bit her lip and did as he asked, weakly throwing her arms around his neck.

Kohimu had been watching the curious interaction between his mother and the hanyou and now that things had reached a head, he raced ahead, calling out for her. "Mother—what is going on?"

Sango's face was twisted in a grimace as she stared at her eldest son and issued out her orders in as strong of a voice as she could manage. "Inuyasha is taking me to the next village. I can't go on right now." She swallowed hard at the admission of her weakness, "I'm going to ask Tisoki and Nobe to stay behind with me. Kohimu, you go on with Inuyasha and the others. They may need your strong arm and your arrows."

"But Mom," Kohimu dropped the formal term he had been using and shook his head in consternation. "What's wrong? Why can't you go on?"

Sango sighed and her hands on Inuyasha's shoulders kneaded into fists as she struggled with her pain. "I need a midwife."

"We're going now kid, keep up if you can, we ain't gonna wait!" Inuyasha yelled. He leaped forward, passing Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo who all immediately picked up their pace when they saw Inuyasha's hurry.

* * *

The people of the next village were understandably hesitant when the white haired, dog-eared Inuyasha arrived and demanded that their healer or midwife attend the ailing woman on his back. But Koinu and Shippo also pleaded for her and the smoother talking fox and gentle-eyed pup convinced them to help Sango.

Inuyasha and his group waited only long enough for Tisoki, Nobe, and Kohimu to catch up, then they left the village's healer and midwife with some advance payment and left, setting out again for the temple.

Alone with his mother and with Nobe, Tisoki was stunned. He sat outside the healer's tent, disturbed and tense as he listened for any signs or sounds from his mother. Kohimu had told him that Sango needed a midwife, and the boy knew without any other words exactly what that meant. Sango had been pregnant and now she was miscarrying.

"How many children has Lady Sango had?" Nobe asked. He was sitting beside Tisoki with his eyes lowered to the ground in embarrassment. He was ashamed at having been left behind, and also tense with _why_ Sango was sick. Men and boys were generally not associated with laboring or bleeding women at all, it was unclean.

"I am unsure," Tisoki answered. His eyes were closed, his jaw tight.

"How can that be?" Nobe asked, almost laughing. "How many brothers and sisters do you have exactly?"

"There are six of us, Nobe. But there are many of our brothers and sisters that didn't live long enough to draw breath." Tisoki sighed and shifted uncomfortably. "I would guess ten—eleven now."

"In my family I was the oldest of ten living children, but three of my younger siblings died when they were tiny children," Nobe said. "Childhood diseases."

Tisoki opened his eyes and turned toward Nobe with a sad smile. "I suppose it is better to have lost family before they knew life. Losing a younger brother or…a sister—it would be devastating."

Nobe nodded but said nothing else. He knew by the pained expression that Tisoki wore that the young slayer was thinking of his own younger sister, Kasai. What if she had died? Tisoki would not know now that he was confined to looking after his mother. The answer was beyond him, toward the north, just barely out of his reach.

Clouds rolled in from the west, from over the sea, thick, roiling, and blue-black like a sick, painful bruise. The balance of life and death wobbled as the higher powers weighed out the tokens, examining mankind's debts and sins. Tisoki and Nobe looked up alertly as thunder cracked and rolled over the Niigata plain, echoing off the nearby mountains that marked the end of the relatively flat ground.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Tisoki muttered. "I hope Kasai is warm somewhere."

* * *

"Show me what you can do, my children." Master Dani stood in the garden, beneath a tall, wide maple tree. His face was bright with excitement. He lifted his beefy arms and motioned to the left. "Kokushi," he called.

The young man rose up to a standing position from where he had been squatting. In his fist he held a long bamboo pole. He was dressed in a fresh robe, not the blue or the red of one of the disciples, but a two-toned robe of a high-ranking master. Kokushi's colors were brown and gold. His hair was neatly pinned back, his face and his hands, even beneath his fingernails, were all spotlessly clean.

Master Dani pointed right then with his other hand and called a different name, "Kisei."

The young woman knelt in a crouched position. She held her bamboo rod awkwardly when compared to Kokushi. Like her "brother," Kisei had had a change of clothing. Now she was not dressed as a priestess, but as if she was a demon slayer once more. The black bodysuit that she had been wearing when she'd been delivered to Master Dani originally was on beneath her kimono of baby blue and a soft yellow obi. Her hair was combed and glossy, pinned up carefully atop her head.

At a small signal from Master Dani the youths raced at one another, shouting.

Kokushi slashed at Kisei with his bamboo pole but she wheeled away from it with ease. She darted closer and jabbed him with the end of her pole. Kokushi stumbled and fell backwards. His pole dropped from his sweat-slicked hands. He breathed hard and all eyes turned toward his shaking, quivering hands.

"Do not worry, my son," Master Dani murmured. "Your control may not be exact currently, but it will improve. I believe that you also suffer from a body that has not been properly trained." He turned his eyes toward Kisei. "You my daughter performed excellently, but I believe your advantage springs from your body. It has achieved a high level of fitness and skill, though _you_ have not yet. Release the pole."

Kisei did instantly as he ordered and held her hands out. Like Kokushi's they quivered and shook with a tremor.

Master Dani nodded. "Yes, I see. There is no need for you to worry my children, you have excellent bodies, but it always takes time to force out a powerful soul."

They nodded as one and chanted, "Yes, Father."

* * *

The storm had rolled in and it had begun to sprinkle by the time Inuyasha and his group passed through the first foothills of the mountains surrounding the Niigata plain. Without Sango or the inexperienced Nobe the group gained speed, passing the hills easily. Kohimu was all that slowed them down now but the boy had powerful legs and the incredible stamina of youth on his side.

They came to a place where they could hear the surf crashing against the rocks, cracking like thunder. The sounds of the surf and the storm fought with each other, echoing through the air and making Koinu's ears buzz. At the low point between the hills Inuyasha halted and considered their location.

"Kohimu," he shouted over the crash of the distant waves. Over the heights of the next peak the group could not yet see the gray of the ocean but they could hear it and even Kohimu's human nose could smell it. "Did Kagome say anything about the ocean?"

Kohimu, panting after his extended sprinting after the others, nodded. "Yes…at night…"

"So she only heard it when it was quiet at night?" Inuyasha asked. His ears swiveled around wildly, unable to focus on one single noise in the mish-mash of the auditory maelstrom.

"I think…so…" Kohimu gasped.

Shippo giggled and smirked at Kohimu. "You've got a little sweat on your forehead there, Kohimu," he taunted.

Kohimu made a face at the kit but ignored him.

"Shippo shut up and focus," Inuyasha snapped. "If Kagome could only hear the surf at night then she was close but…" the hanyou's eyes narrowed with critical thinking. "…sheltered. The shrine must be in one of the little valleys between these hills."

"If we split up we'd find it sooner," Akisame suggested.

Inuyasha scowled. "We don't know what we're walking into…"

A breeze pummeled them from above, whipping at their hair and their clothes. Shippo held his tail down and Akisame spat and pulled on her black hair as it flew into her face. Koinu had his tied back so he smirked as he watched his sister battle the wind. Inuyasha, meanwhile, ignored it and turned to face the wind, sniffing loudly. It was an old, handy habit. The wind could be any demon's friend. It was also popular with flying creatures of all kinds Inuyasha saw the white and gray gulls wheeling overhead, taking advantage of the wind currents. Their winds barely moved in the wind.

_Seabirds…_

But before he could come to a conclusion by watching the birds, a faint scent reached him through the wind—two scents actually. No, _four._

"What the _hell?"_ Inuyasha demanded. Without warning he turned and started to race north, leaping.

"Looks like he found something," Akisame said. She peered over her shoulder as Koinu took off after their father first and waved at Kohimu. "Time to run again!"

Shippo was the last to follow them. He took a long moment to sniff the wind as Inuyasha had, trying to uncover the source of the hanyou's unexplained rush. His nose was stronger than Inuyasha's, but he didn't have the same experience as the hanyou did in tracking and analyzing. Even so Shippo picked out the familiar scents even faster than Inuyasha had.

The wind was filled with Kagome, Miroku, and Masuyo's scent, and it was coming _out of the sky._

* * *

Next time!

Kagome:

_Miroku and Masuyo did as she commanded but their eyes patrolled the gardens, searching for a familiar face, praying that Kasai was alive and well. Kagome stared at Shiroihana's back and felt her heart trying to take off inside her in terror. The hate in the eyes of the priestesses and the monks. Why weren't they surprised? It wasn't everyday that a white-haired demoness walked through their midst with three free humans, a priestess, a monk, and a demon slayer boy…_

_**They think she's going to sell us to Master Dani**__. Kagome almost stumbled over her own feet. She watched Shiroihana's white fluff and her brilliant, bright hair ripple in the wind. She felt the drizzling rain of the storm start on her face. __**No, she isn't going to do it. She is pretending and the others just assume…**_

Inuyasha's group:

_The little boy tried to answer them, but his voice was raspy and weak. "Master Dani did something to Kasai and Kenpo…he…" The little boy stopped, swallowing thickly. "Me and Hato," he motioned to the little girl at his side that had originally cried for Kenpo and Kasai. "We're sick. We need your help."_

"_What about Kasai?" Koinu demanded. _

"_She's not Kasai anymore!" Hato cried, her shoulders shaking. _


	27. All Life is a Stage

A/N: Well the bears did not get me but the sunshine, as weak as it is this far north in Upper Michigan, did. It took 20 minutes to burn my swimsuit marks into my shoulders, and I didn't feel a thing after donning my shirt again and waltzing around in the sunlight some more as my chest and upper arms burned. Ugh. Ouch. Did I ever mention that I am a semi-redhead? I burn at the drop of a hat and sunscreen disgusts me. Ugh. Anyway...THANK YOU EVERYONE!! (for your concern with the bears. You know Colbert is serious, they are a massive threat here within our own borders...haha) I have returned...To **Lian** who reviewed anonymously, Thank you! I am honored that you would say that because honestly sometimes I feel a fast update drags my writing down or strips it of detail, but if I am pleasing you then I'm doing good :-) Of course every bit of writing is subjective. I think it sucks when I write it, and I look back half a year later and I'll be astounded at it. But enough of my rambling! To **New Fan** I hadn't considered writing something like that! But you're right, it would be hilarious. Another reviewer gave me an excellent idea where Tisoki falls in love with Aki and all hell breaks loose. Ah, I could see some simpler, funny stories in the future!

There is a brief exchange between Master Dani and Sessmom that I really liked...well I'll be honest, I like everything about her. Hehe...

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Shiroihana loaded Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome onto a carriage. She rode with them and asked questions about Miroku's sons and taunted Masuyo a bit. Sango's scent changed, prompting IY to force her to stay in a village and rest rather than go into battle saving Kasai. He left her with Nobe and Tisoki to look after her. IY, Koinu, Aki, Shippo, and Kohimu reached a place where they could see seabirds and hear the surf. IY took off following a strange scent he caught in the wind from out of the sky: Masuyo, Kagome, and Miroku. Oh and Master Dani had a brief test for his children Kisei and Kohushi.

* * *

**All Life is a Stage**

As the afternoon sky darkened with massive, dark clouds and a light rain began to fall in a steady drizzle, Master Dani sat in his small open-air pavilion, surrounded by the gardens that his slave-disciples kept trimmed, watered, and weeded. On the wind he scented his own demise. He watched a small group of monks working in slow-motion in the garden, removing fallen leaves from the flowerbeds. A priestess scattered food for the koi fish in the distant pond.

Soon all of it would be gone, thrown into upheaval. For a very short time Master Dani lamented his upcoming mortality, but he had spent a century controlling his body, drawing nourishment from the humans that he enslaved. Slowly eating them. He had lived long and well on the suffering of his prey. Now it was time to make sure that his offspring had their turn. He had already succeeded above his own ancestor in producing two strong, fast offspring that had taken control of their hosts' central nervous systems enough that he no longer had to exert control over them.

As for the other two of his offspring…

A prudent parent would sacrifice the unfledged offspring to Kokushi and Kisei. But the weaker offspring inside the younger hosts had an uphill battle because their hosts were younger. Even so enough time had passed that soon they would exert control over their human hosts too. It could only be a few more hours and all four of his offspring would have come into their own.

That was too tempting for Master Dani to pass up. He formulated a plan with the hope of saving all _four_ offspring. He would have to die, yes, but they were his concern now. His master had died a hundred years ago in order to assure that Dani escaped. It was the cycle of things, the reason why Master Dani feared the time of his spawning and also celebrated it. The feel of his offspring in his mind was a joyous thing. To see their human bodies obeying them, to see the change in the Chosen humans who had once sneered at him and hated him…Master Dani had never been a social creature, but the company was attractive.

He rose to his feet and left the pavilion. The humans looked up as he passed, cowering until he had entered his large, sprawling private quarters. Inside he moved to the room where he kept the remaining seven Chosen in their massive cage (A/N: yes, the number has dropped one more. I'll give you one guess what happened). They cowered at once, crying and whimpering like tiny children, as some of them actually were. Very poor eating when they were that young but Master Dani could not control the age of his victims when another demon brought them in. That was the price of relying on others to bring his food.

These remaining Chosen feared him whenever he came in the afternoon because that was when he took the next one of them away to slaughter, like chickens from the henhouse. They expected that he would summon one of them using the thing in their necks that coerced them to follow his will, but this afternoon Master Dani surprised them.

He pointed to one of them, a girl whose name was Mirimi. The girl got up and moved unsteadily to stand before the padlocked door of the cage. Master Dani stepped forward and unlocked it, opening it to let the girl out. After he had closed and locked the door once more he instructed the girl: "Take my youngest children out of the shrine." He reached for the back of her neck and indelicately dug into her neck with his nails.

Mirimi screeched but her body stayed still, rigid. "You will be free as soon as you reach the bottom of the stairs. Go," Master Dani ordered.

She hurried from the room.

* * *

For several hours Shiroihana had been silent sitting across from the three humans. For a long time they had sat in a tense silence, but eventually, as Shiroihana had hoped they would, the humans began to talk in quiet whispers. Of course her keen ears picked out every word, no matter how hushed it was. It was through their talk that she hoped to learn the most about them. She reacted to nothing she overheard even when it was funny, insulting, or confusing.

The humans talked of Miroku's wife with worry; they discussed what they would do when they reached the temple where the parasite held the monk's only daughter, and then finally the boy started prodding his father about Shiroihana's demand. The priestess questioned Shiroihana's intentions while the monk stayed silent, disturbed.

The boy surprised her when he started asking his father to let him go. "Mom needs Kasai at home," he whispered, "Kohimu and Tisoki would never want to go because they would never give up slaying demons to sit around in some castle in the clouds all day. Riki and Koudo are too young. I'm the one no one would miss."

"Masuyo," Kagome murmured sadly, sounding as if she might cry.

"That's not true," Miroku said, a little loudly. His violet eyes moved toward Shiroihana but the inuyoukai woman sat perfectly still with her eyes closed, seemingly asleep. He lowered his voice to speak again to his son. "Kasai adores you and so do Riki and Koudo. They would be heartbroken if you left us, Masuyo."

"It has to be me," Masuyo said with a harsh firmness. "I'm the right age to be a hostage too…"

"Hush," Miroku ordered. "I won't hear any more of this."

_What a shame,_ Shiroihana thought. _Our time has come to an end._

The carriage dropped suddenly and the humans cried out in one voice of alarm as their stomachs lurched inside of them.

"What's going on?"

"What happened?"

Shiroihana sat up slowly and opened her eyes. She feigned a yawn and casually touched the fluff around her shoulders. "I do believe we've arrived. There is a storm outside, humans. It will soon begin raining."

Miroku shifted, lifting up his staff, ready to use it. "How far from the temple are we?"

"We're directly above it, monk." Shiroihana smiled widely as he reacted with shock and the boy and the priestess tried as one to peek out through the screens over the doors.

The carriage fell again, descending rapidly. The humans cried out with alarm, grabbing hold of one another and the carriage around them.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to transport you back to your homes, humans," Shiroihana said. "These dragons will leave as soon as we have departed the carriage. They are famished from the journey. I doubt you will get a proper look at them."

"Are we going to crash?" Masuyo demanded, shouting at her.

"Well, well little boy," Shiroihana teased, almost purring at him. "If you expect to come and live with me you should learn to keep calm."

Masuyo paled as he stared at her but his blue eyes darkened with dislike, perhaps even hate.

The carriage stilled suddenly and Shiroihana tilted her head, sniffing once. "Ah, the smell of flowers and human blood." She motioned toward the flaps of the carriage. "Please depart, your daughter and the parasite await and the carriage is not long for this world."

"What do you mean?" Kagome demanded.

"It will leave with the dragons, priestess." Shiroihana rose to her feet and moved toward the flap on her right. She stepped outside and glanced toward the head of the carriage. The chains rattled as the dragons—barely visible as a blurred outline against the greenery of the garden and the darkness of the clouds above—fought against them. The wind of their wings, as well as that of the storm, whipped around Shiroihana, pulling her long white hair and the fur over her shoulders about.

The humans spilled out behind her. Miroku and Masuyo gawked at the dragons and the massive gray chains. Kagome, however, was taken with the scene around them. It was familiar. She had prowled around the garden, halfway admiring the work of the monks and priestesses while at the same time watching them with the eyes of a scientist or an explorer or a crime-scene investigator. The wind sucked hungrily at her priestess robes and her hair but Kagome barely noticed it.

"This is the place," she yelled over the wind. "I remember these gardens."

Shiroihana hugged her fluff close to her. "You should step further from the carriage, humans."

Almost immediately after she had spoken there was a loud, deep sound, a growling. A flash of blue fire spouted into the air and the whoosh of nearly invisible, powerful wings lashed the ground. The carriage and the dragons rushed away, wheeling into the sky. The humans gaped after it and coughed in the oily blue smoke it left behind.

Around them in the gardens monks and priestesses were scattered, covering their bodies with their arms or staring with wide, dumbfounded eyes at the newest arrivals. Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo gradually noticed the scattered humans.

"We have to find Kasai," Miroku said, rushing at the first resident of the shrine that he could. It was a priestess about Masuyo's age. His approach made the girl turn and stumble away from him. She was gaunt and skeletal, her skin was gray. Her robes were completely red, not the traditional red and white combination that Kagome was dressed in. When Miroku saw that she was trying to run from him, he shouted to her, "Please! Can you tell me if you've seen my daughter? Her name is Kasai and she looks just like me…"

"Monk," Shiroihana yelled. "Do not bother. These are the minions of the parasite. We must speak with their master."

Kagome was tense in her spot beside Masuyo. She scanned the wide green lawn around them, looking for the familiar, bulky outline of Master Dani in his red-brown robes. Priestesses and monks had spilled out into the gardens from the barracks. Their eyes were glued to Shiroihana. Kagome saw hate in their eyes.

A note of alarm started inside her, a half formed, wild fear. _Wait…wait a minute…_

Shiroihana had gathered Miroku back with her and she disrupted Kagome's frantic thinking when she said, "Follow me."

Miroku and Masuyo did as she commanded but their eyes patrolled the gardens, searching for a familiar face, praying that Kasai was alive and well. Kagome stared at Shiroihana's back and felt her heart trying to take off inside her in terror. The hate in the eyes of the priestesses and the monks. Why weren't they _surprised?_ It wasn't everyday that a white-haired demoness walked through their midst with three free humans, a priestess, a monk, and a demon slayer boy…

_They think she's going to sell us to Master Dani._ Kagome almost stumbled over her own feet. She watched Shiroihana's white fluff and her brilliant, bright hair ripple in the wind. She felt the drizzling rain of the storm start on her face. _No, she isn't going to do it. She is pretending and the others just assume…_

Shiroihana led them up a small stairway onto a broad, open-aired pavilion made of rich brown wood. It was the place where Master Dani conducted his worship ceremonies. Kagome looked around at the ground and imagined she saw spots of darkness where blood stained the wooden boards. She began wringing her hands together viciously; accidentally cracking her knuckles with the pressure she applied.

The inuyoukai woman came to a stop in the center of the pavilion and shouted against the wind, "Where is the master of this temple?"

Master Dani appeared, waddling with his loose, clumsy gait up the stairs at the opposite end of the pavilion, facing Shiroihana. He ducked his head in respect. "Fair lady, I am the master of this temple. You may call me Master Dani."

Shiroihana's face was dry and bland as she regarded him. "I do not care what your name is, parasite. I have come to learn about you. I have even brought a gift…"

Kagome lost her nerve. She grabbed Miroku and Masuyo, shouting desperately. "She's going to sell us to him! Run!"

Before they could take three steps, Shiroihana lunged and snatched Masuyo up by the throat. The boy's hand slipped out of Kagome's as he tried to claw at Shiroihana's wrist and arm.

"No!" Miroku slashed at the inuyoukai woman with his staff but she was far too fast for him. The golden staff hit nothing but air as it jangled.

Master Dani stayed where he was at the opposite end of the pavilion. His expression was dark, almost disturbed. The priestesses and monks that had gathered in the garden to watch the interaction suddenly emerged fearlessly, walking with stiff legs to surround the pavilion.

"Damn," Shiroihana muttered, observing the massing army of spiritually gifted humans. Miroku lunged at her again, still slashing with his staff. Kagome had jumped from the pavilion and was searching over the ground for a stone or a stick, anything she could use to fight with. The humans had been flighty and stupid as usual, only reaffirming Shiroihana's view of them as little more than large, bipedal rabbits. They hadn't seen the monks and priestesses and realized that Master Dani had his own personal army to protect himself with. The only way to get to him would have been to deceive him, to take him totally by surprise. Instead the humans had panicked like the sheep they were and now Master Dani was going to have a chance to throw his army at them. _Useless humans._

With her free hand Shiroihana summoned her whip. Like Sesshomaru's it was neon green and seeing that color emerge from her fingers, Miroku hesitated for a moment. But one look at his son's choking, graying face made him attack her again.

"Fool," Shiroihana growled. "You should have trusted me…" She tossed the boy into Miroku, knocking him backward as she pivoted and lifted her whip. She let it fly, cracking in the air like thunder—but it wasn't aimed at Miroku and the boy. Instead the line of spectral green energy slashed Master Dani, wrapping itself around his neck.

Her attack on him made the priestesses and monks charge forward. They lifted their hands toward the pavilion, trying to climb up and touch Shiroihana to purify her. On the ground, Kagome screamed as the monks and priestesses grabbed her and pushed her to the grass.

Miroku held onto his son, fighting the pressure of tears in his eyes and the pounding of his heart in his chest. _Was Kagome right or wrong? Whose side is she on?_

Masuyo coughed and held his throat, trying to recover. His small body shook. "I'm okay, Dad." He fumbled for his sling and the bag of his small stones. "I want to fight…"

"I'm not sure who we're fighting," Miroku muttered. He watched as Shiroihana's whip tightened and curled back toward its owner, dragging Master Dani with it. The parasite fell to the floor and his struggling threw open his robe. A second, puny set of arms appeared with huge joints and insect-like fingers covered with bristles. Miroku looked away, feeling sick.

"We have to save Kagome," Masuyo said. He pushed away from his father and stood up, setting a stone in his sling.

Kagome was caught on the ground, held down by five monks and one priestess. Other priestesses had swarmed up the pavilion and were racing toward Shiroihana to purify her. Miroku made his decision and rushed toward the priestesses, blocking their path to the inuyoukai woman. He pushed the women back with his staff, using it like a broom.

Meanwhile Masuyo bared his teeth and blinked back tears as he sent one of his pebbles as Shiroihana called them, flying through the air. His aim was deadly. It hit one of the monks that was holding Kagome down in the head and punctured his skull. Blood spouted and he fell instantly down, his body landing on top of Kagome, covering her in blood. Masuyo cringed but placed another stone into his sling and took aim once more. This time he sent the stone to another monk's shoulder. Again blood spurted and the man cried out bitterly with pain, but he didn't release Kagome.

Shiroihana dragged Master Dani over the floor of the pavilion. Her spectral whip was poisonous and it burned his skin as well as cutting him when she used it to lash him. He left a trail of blood behind as she hauled him up closer to her. When he was only a few feet from her, Shiroihana flicked her wrist and the whip vanished, disintegrating. The parasite hacked. His body was shaking weakly.

"Blood is a poor nutrition source," Shiroihana told him, smirking. "Now, parasite, end your attack with the monks and priestesses or I will tear you apart."

"My lady," Master Dani called to her in a raspy, ugly whisper. "I can help you. For the humans with you, I will trade you dozens of talismans that will make you and all those valuable to you immune to all spiritual attacks…"

Shiroihana reached one hand into her robes and tossed down the bundle of black silk. It hit Master Dani in the face and bounced off him to thump dully on the floor. "You mean that foul thing? A very weak trinket and not worth my time, I'm afraid."

"Why do you help the humans, lady?" Master Dani asked her, coughing and rubbing his throat with one of his four hands. "They are not like you."

"No, they are not," Shiroihana agreed. To one side of her, the side not guarded by Miroku or Masuyo, a priestess raced toward her with her hands outstretched and glowing dark purple. The priestess was no more than ten or so years old, the same age as Saya. Shiroihana caught the girl's movement with one eye and in an instant let her whip fly in the tiny child's face. The girl fell backwards and her body smoked where the poisonous whip had touched her.

"Then why?" Master Dani demanded.

Shiroihana turned back to him and sneered. "You are not like me either."

Without warning she lunged forward and grabbed Master Dani by the neck. Her clawed hand flexed, digging into his flesh. His blood oozed out, thick and slimy and red-brown. He pawed at her flesh, choking. Shiroihana's face twisted with disgust as the parasite's spittle fell onto her hand, tinged red with blood.

The priestesses and monks that Miroku held back suddenly fell over, crying out with alarm. Miroku tripped over them and fell as well. On the floor of the pavilion they stayed still, blinking in bafflement or rubbing at their necks with their feeble, pencil-thin fingers. As Masuyo released another stone the remaining monks and priestesses released Kagome and moved away from her. They stumbled over their fallen and injured comrades, monks and priestesses that Masuyo had already slain or injured with his stones. The boy stopped, pausing as he saw their eyes turn toward him with fear.

Kagome got up from the grass, wiping at her mouth and breathing hard as she was able to at last take in what was happening. She was covered in the blood of the first monk that Masuyo had killed. Although it was raining and Kagome was drenched her hair, her arms, and her back were heavily stained with blood. As she tried not to react hysterically to it, Masuyo looked at the ground, shakily. He stared at the sling in his hands, the bag of stones. It had never been intended for use on humans and now Masuyo felt queasy as he saw the blood covering Kagome, aware that he had killed someone…

Shiroihana dropped Master Dani to the ground. His body landed heavily, the impact rattled through the wood of the pavilion. In the relative silence that had fallen around the pavilion, all eyes turned toward the inuyoukai woman and the parasite. Water poured down from eaves of the roof, enclosing the pavilion in a curtain of flowing and beaded water. Shiroihana took a step forward to loom over him, sneering lightly. "Tell me parasite. Where is the young woman these humans are looking for? Where is the girl with a scent like the monk's?"

Master Dani made a wet gurgling sound below her. His eyes fluttered, trying to stay open. If he made an attempt to answer her it was incoherent and unclear.

"If you use the monks and priestesses again," Shiroihana warned him, sounding bored, "I'll have to kill you and find the girl myself."

A young woman's voice came then, shouting. Shiroihana looked up at it, as did Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome, all of them recognizing it. Through the increasing downpour, a girl was running toward them from the buildings on the other side of the temple. Her long black hair was flattened and plastered to her face, her forehead, and her back. Her robes and the black bodysuit beneath were glued to her thin body. As she approached the monks and priestesses in her way parted, stepping backwards. They glared as she passed.

"Kasai!" Miroku yelled. He grabbed his staff and rushed over the pavilion stage, away from the confused monks and priestesses that lingered behind him, staring.

Masuyo ran too, foolishly dropping his sling.

"Kasai," Kagome said, frowning. _Why is she dressed like that? Shouldn't she be like the others here?_ Soaked through with rainwater and blood, Kagome shook her hands and her long white sleeves dribbled. She wiped at her face and started to move forward to see Kasai too, but with a little more caution. She glanced toward Shiroihana and saw that the inuyoukai woman had not moved at all. She stayed where she was over Master Dani, ready to kill him at any moment.

Just before the short stairs to the pavilion, Miroku and Kasai collided and hugged. The monk, heedless of the rain and his soaked daughter, threw his arms around her. "Kasai," he half cried her name, chanting it with relief. "Kasai! I'm so glad you're okay. I'm so sorry this happened." He closed his eyes tightly, fighting the tears that came anyway, escaping his eyes, warm droplets to mingle with the rain. _My little girl, my only girl…_

Kasai's arms stayed wrapped around him, her head tucked against his chest. She made a little movement, a tiny jerk of her chest, crying. "Da…" she stuttered in a tiny, childish voice, "Daddy…"

Masuyo smashed into them, grinning ecstatically. "Big Sister!" He wrapped his arsm around both his father and his sister. Unlike Miroku, who shed sadder tears of relief, regretting that anything terrible had happened to Kasai at all, Masuyo only rejoiced that Kasai was whole, healthy enough to walk, and she knew who they were.

On the pavilion Master Dani closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Shiroihana's eyes flicked suspiciously between the parasite and the touching reunion between father and daughter, brother and sister. Then she gave one short, sharp little laugh and nudged Master Dani with her foot to make him come awake again. "That's not her, is it?" she asked quietly.

The parasite stared up at her but said nothing.

Shiroihana saw that Kasai was coming, separating from the monk and the boy, walking up the pavilion stairs. For a moment the inuyoukai woman and the demon slayer girl looked at each other and Shiroihana smiled, hard. "I see," she said. "How interesting."

Kasai frowned at Shiroihana. Miroku and Masuyo followed behind her, tense suddenly, wondering what was happening.

"Have you come to kill him, girl?" Shiroihana asked. She narrowed her eyes critically, examining the girl unabashedly. _I know what you are…_

Kasai nodded. "I'm going to kill him and _set everyone free._"

The monks and priestesses, drenched by the rain, heard her words and their glares faded into bafflement. Kagome, still down on the ground with her toes half buried in mud and sand and lightly nauseous whenever she looked at her sleeves and saw the red blood dripping from them, washed off by the rain, watched the crowd. The monks and priestesses had perplexed her when she'd been one of them and now they continued to do so. Why hadn't they started running when Shiroihana's attack on Master Dani had seemingly cut off his control over them? Why hadn't they looked happy for Kasai when Miroku and Masuyo hugged her? Why didn't they look happy now that Kasai said she would set them free?

Then again, why did she feel as if something was wrong? Kagome searched herself as she stared at the stage and blinked against the spatter of the raindrops of her face and shook her hair out of her eyes. Something felt wrong about Kasai's little show. And the way Shiroihana spent so long looking at Kasai.

_I feel like I'm watching some Shakespearean tragedy._ That was it, she realized, it felt like a _show._ Kagome battled her doubt, frowning.

Shiroihana stepped back away from Master Dani and lost interest in the dripping demon slayer. She shrugged her shoulders and stared down at her white fur, distracted by it. "Then kill him, girl. Quit wasting my time."

Kasai looked down at Master Dani where he lied motionless, pathetic. Her mouth worked the air for a moment as if she had forgotten how to speak. "I don't have my sword…"

"A feeble excuse," Shiroihana said. She reached under her fluff and pulled out a small black object. She knelt and pushed it over the smooth wooden floor as gracefully as if she were performing a move in a dance. The object came to a stop against Kasai's bare foot. It shone brightly, reflecting the light. It was a dagger made of obsidian.

Kasai bent down and picked up the little knife. She clutched it in one palm and snarled down at Master Dani. Her lips curled with real hatred. She reached down and pulled his head back, exposing his neck and slit with the knife, hard and quickly. Master Dani gurgled and choked rolling away from her. His body gave up easily, jerking spastically and then finally going limp. His eyes stayed open, unseeing and cold.

Masuyo rushed to Kasai and wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his head into the middle of her back. "Oh Kasai! I'm sorry…"

A few feet away from Master Dani's corpse, Shiroihana smirked and stooped over to delicately pick up the sling that Masuyo had thrown away. She clutched it in her palm tightly for a moment, examining it with an amused smile before she tucked it underneath her white fluff.

Kasai dropped the obsidian knife carelessly to the pavilion floor and closed her eyes. She shouted at the priestesses and monks encircling the pavilion like it was a stage: "Go home! You're free! Leave this place!"

As one they started to filter away, moving like zombies through the gray curtain of the rain. Kagome watched them walking, the dying and those that were still strong alike, all moving with shuffled feet and heads bowed. It was as if they had received a command, not a ticket to freedom. _Something isn't right…_

Kagome looked to Shiroihana but the inuyoukai seemed bored, stroking her fluff and sniffing occasionally at the rain dripping from the eaves. Miroku, Masuyo, and Kasai were huddling together, laughing and crying. It seemed real and genuine. Kasai smiled and Kasai spoke, and Kasai blinked and nodded and cried. She even shivered in her wet clothes.

_What's wrong with me?_ Kagome frowned and flicked her sleeves again, scowling at the red droplets that left her shirt. _Maybe that's why I feel so horrible…_

She didn't see the way Shiroihana suddenly stiffened and changed direction, staring after the vanishing monks and priestesses, waiting for something…

* * *

In the afternoon, when the rain intensified, Inuyasha spotted three shapes hurtling down the mountain ahead of them. One of them was clearly dressed in the red and white of a priestess. He intercepted them and Shippo, Koinu, Akisame, and Kohimu followed.

The priestess, dripping and wet, cowered from them, as did the two youths she was escorting. When they asked about a temple or a shrine with a parasitic master, all three reported that that was where they had just come from.

"Have you seen a girl named Kasai?" Kohimu asked.

"Yes," the little girl cried. "Poor Kasai and Kenpo!" She covered her face, as if trying to hide from Inuyasha's group.

"Who?" Akisame asked, shaking her head like a dog, flinging the droplets all over, rather purposefully, onto Shippo.

The little boy tried to answer them, but his voice was raspy and weak. "Master Dani did something to Kasai and Kenpo…he…" The little boy stopped, swallowing thickly. "Me and Hato," he motioned to the little girl at his side that had originally cried for Kenpo and Kasai. "We're sick. We need your help."

"What about Kasai?" Koinu demanded.

"She's not Kasai anymore!" Hato cried, her shoulders shaking.

"What the hell does that mean?" Inuyasha snapped. He flicked his ears, listening for the surf of the ocean and his ears flung water about. Drops of it slid down his bangs and tried to dribble into his eyes.

"Something happened to the four of them," the older girl explained, shivering against the rain. "Master Dani did something to Osore, Hato, Kenpo, and Kasai. He was…he was…" she stopped and burst abruptly into tears.

"Shit," Inuyasha snarled. "Either tell us or don't but we haven't got any time for this."

"We can't just leave them!" Shippo frowned.

"I won't go back there!" the little boy screeched, suddenly hysterical at the thought. "I won't!"

"It'll be different now with us, kid," Inuyasha said.

"He's right," Koinu said, ducking down to look the boy, Osore, in the eye. "Father and I will kill the parasite before he can do any other bad things, but if we have your help it might go a lot faster."

"But we need your help," Hato cried. "Master Dani did something to us! Osore doesn't want to believe me but if it got Kenpo and Kasai it'll get us too."

"What _got_ Kasai?" Kohimu demanded angrily. His nostrils flared and his face twisted with fear. "What happened to her?"

Hato whimpered, cowering away from him. "She's not Kasai anymore. She's Kisei, Master Dani's daughter."

"Some kind of spell," Inuyasha grunted, dismissing it. "We'll figure it out when we get there. Your sister isn't _dead,_ Kohimu. Notice the kid didn't say _dead._"

Kohimu glared at Inuyasha, biting his lip fiercely. He blinked hard and stared at the ground. It could've been the rain, but watching him, Koinu didn't think so.

"Kohimu," Inuyasha barked out the orders stiffly like a drill sergeant. "Follow us with these three. We don't stop now until we get to this damned parasite."

* * *

Next time

Sessmom: _"You have manners, do you?" Shiroihana asked, openly taunting Kasai. "How impressive—for a parasite."_

Koinu: _Koinu snatched up Burikko and rose, stumbling to his feet at the same time as Kasai. He held up the little woman's sword and faced her, narrowing his eyes. "Kasai—I don't know what's happened to you but listen to me! We can help you now. Are you still in there, Kasai?" His voice wavered with emotional and physical pain alike._


	28. Kasai's Rampage

A/N: Got my hair cut, played a lot of the Sims 2...slacked off...we had the county fair too...is that enough excuses for my unusual lateness? Considering that I usually update like the world is about to end. So I suppose that I owe you all an apology! But I hope this chapter will suffice. It is jam-packed action. I had a blast writing it. High charged emotion, drama, blood, guts, betrayal--death. Well, this chapter and the next one blur together in my mind so...hehe. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own them. Though I think it's safe to say the kids are mine and icky Master Dani was mine.

Last Chapter: Shiroihana brought Miroku, Kagome, and Masuyo to the temple. They faced off with Master Dani who pitted his monk and priestess-slaves against them. Masuyo felt bad about killing a monk, Kagome had a moment where she was sure that Shiroihana was going to sell them to Master Dani rather than help them. Then Kasai came after Shiroihana got a hold of Master Dani. Kasai hugged her brother and father and then came up to put on a show while she killed Master Dani and set all the monks and priestesses free. Meanwhile Kagome watched it and felt like it was an act, but she couldn't find anything obviously wrong. Inuyasha and his group ran into Hato, Osore, and Mirimi escaping from the shrine and questioned them.

* * *

**Kasai's Rampage**

It was only a few minutes after they found the priestess woman and the young boy and girl fleeing down the mountains that Inuyasha and his group saw the monks and priestesses stumbling together in a mass. There were hundreds of them, monks in red and blue, priestesses in red and then in red and white. Thin, with hollow stares, they hardly took notice of Inuyasha and the others as they walked with their shoulders drooping and their arms hanging limp.

"What the hell is going on?" Inuyasha growled, grabbing the nearest monk by the shoulders.

The man blinked blankly at the hanyou and then pulled away from him without a word.

"Fuck it," Inuyasha growled. He shouted over his shoulder, "Hurry up! Ignore them! We have to move!"

Koinu and Akisame followed their father while Shippo slipped through the monks and priestesses on all fours as a fox with his puffy tail pumping up and down as he climbed higher on the mountainside.

"It's like looking in a mirror," Akisame whined. She spluttered on thick, cold raindrops as she spoke. She spat and made a face at the nearest passing priestess but she received no response at all.

"No," Koinu told her, frowning. His ears laid flat over his white hair. "You're only dressed the same, Aki. These people are sick, they're dying or starving or something…"

"Well if they were in the temple before they're free now. Maybe Kasai beat us to it." Akisame grinned at Koinu, trying to lighten the mood and encourage him, but as she turned she swallowed another raindrop and spat irritably. "Stupid rain."

Koinu's brow furrowed as he heaved a long sigh. "Somehow I don't think that's it."

They reached the top of the hill. The area ahead of them was surprisingly treeless, a sea-swept plain made partially barren by salt. The surf crashed against the cliffs just a few hundred feet away. The next rise was steep and rocky but even through the grayness of the rain Inuyasha, Koinu, Akisame, Shippo and eventually Kohimu following up behind could all see a few straggling monks and priestesses stumbling down the embankment.

A popping sound announced Shippo's transformation from four-legged fox to bipedal boy. "Are those stairs?" Shippo asked, pointing to the next rise with one small clawed finger.

Inuyasha squinted against the rain and nodded, snorting on the rain. "Yeah, I think they are. They must come up from the beach." He grunted darkly. "I think this is it."

Behind them Kohimu had arrived. He was carrying both Hato and Osore on his back like a mule while Mirimi followed behind. Mirimi saw the next hill and started crying, high and plaintively. "Please! No! Don't make me go back there! Master Dani set me free! Please! I won't go back!"

"Calm down, girl," Inuyasha yelled. "You're safe with us." As if it should instantly comfort her, he patted the sheathed Tetsusaiga at his hip. "Nothing's going to happen. We'll just tear up the soil a bit and it'll be over."

Suddenly Osore fell, sliding off Kohimu's shoulders. He landed in the mud of the road with a slick, wet plop and didn't stir even though he had landed face first in the mud.

"Osore?" Kohimu shouted, kneeling unsteadily with Hato still on his back to turn the boy over. Mirimi moved in to help him, pulling on the boy's shoulder. She sheltered his face from the rain with her hand.

Inuyasha looked back at them irritably. "What's the holdup, Kohimu?"

"It's the boy, I think he's unconscious."

Koinu took the initiative suddenly, bumping into his father with one shoulder. "We don't have time for this…"

Inuyasha nodded in agreement. "Kohimu—you stay with the kids and the priestess. We're going to find Kasai."

"No!" Kohimu shouted, hauling himself to his feet. "I want to be there when we save my sister. I—I owe it to her."

Akisame shrugged and blew a raspberry with her lips. "She might already be walking through these trees somewhere. There are a whole lot of priestesses wandering around…"

Koinu elbowed her and hissed, "Shut up, Aki."

"Just stay here, Kohimu. We can't leave them alone if they're sick, okay? If the kid gets better come right after us..." Inuyasha turned his back on the oldest of Sango's sons and leaped forward, sliding on the mud of the embankment to increase his speed. Shippo, Koinu, and Akisame followed his lead, letting their feet squelch and splash in the mud, tearing up grass chunks and small soft stones to send the rolling in piles of muck down the side of the hill.

Kohimu watched them go, gritting his teeth with frustration.

Mirimi was still knelt on the ground, shivering as she covered Osores face and nose from the rain. "Sir…your sister is Kasai?"

Kohimu knelt down to be next to her and nodded somberly. "Yeah, she's my little sister."

Mirimi nodded and blinked. It might've been a reaction against the rain but Kohimu didn't think so. He leaned forward and grabbed Mirimi's other hand, squeezing her wet, cold flesh between his own clammy fingers. "Why did you ask? What is it that you and these kids know about my sister?"

Mirimi whimpered and started to cry loudly, her shoulders shaking with the violence of her emotion. Kohimu released her hand and fumbled for something to say, embarrassed that he had made her cry and yet desperate for information. "Stop crying—what's your name, miss? I just really need to know how my sister is…"

"Mirimi," she murmured.

The priestess's cries awakened Hato on Kohimu's back. The girl stirred and looked for Osore. When she saw him lying on the ground she screeched in horror and slid from Kohimu's back to race to his side. "Osore! Osore!" She splashed down in the mud at his side and leaned close to his face. When she pulled back she screamed, "He stopped breathing! Just like they did! Just like them!"

"What are you saying?" Kohimu demanded, cringing at her high pitched crying. "Stop blubbering, Osore's fine…" Kohimu knelt and performed the same test that Hato had. At first he heard nothing, and it seemed like quite a long time between the boy's breaths, but then at last he heard and felt a puff of air pass through the boy's lips. He sat back up and gestured to Osore's chest triumphantly. "He's fine."

Hato shook her head. Her eyes were red-rimmed with her tears. "No, this happened before with Kenpo and Kasai too."

"What happened?" Kohimu demanded, losing his patience.

"For a second they stopped breathing," Hato whimpered, "then they woke up and they weren't themselves."

"What are you saying? Were they possessed? Did the parasite possess them?" Kohimu pulled the girl closer to him, as if by getting in her face she would give him a clearer answer.

"I don't know! They woke up and called themselves Master Dani's children. They said they were Kisei and Kokushi." She snarled the two new names with hate. "They did everything he wanted them to do. He—he—he made them…"

Kohimu pulled away from her, thinking. He had his answer pretty effectively from Hato. The parasite had possessed them somehow.

Osore snapped awake below him, gasping for air and pawing at his eyes to clear them of the rain. Mirimi helped him sit up but Kohimu, alarmed by Hato's accusation, pushed Mirimi's hands away from the boy. He grabbed Osore by the shoulders and forced the boy to look up at him through the rain. Osore grimaced and cringed with each splattered raindrop, but Kohimu saw no physical signs of a possession.

_If Tisoki was here…_he thought and then looked to the priestess.

"Has anything changed for you?" he asked.

"What? What do you mean?" Mirimi shrugged helplessly. "Has what changed?"

"You're a priestess, right? You have spiritual powers. Do you sense a demonic presence in the boy?" Kohimu poked at Osore harshly with one finger and the boy cringed away from him.

"Stop that," Mirimi cried, slapping his hands. "I don't know what you're saying."

Kohimu sat back and stared at the boy and at Hato's shaking. Mirimi was probably untrained but most people with spiritual power would've sensed and reacted to a demonic energy that suddenly appeared in someone laying as close to them as Osore was to Mirimi. They were touching but Mirimi was unaffected. That meant that Mirimi had no power, Osore wasn't possessed, but Osore was possessed but he didn't exhibit a demonic aura.

"Osore," he addressed the boy, trying to sound intimidating rather than uncertain.

"Y-yes?" the boy asked, shaking.

He didn't appear possessed, but Kohimu barely knew the boy and his behavior might not have changed at all. "Do you remember what happened just now?"

"I was sleeping," Osore said. "I dreamed I was swimming with my mother before she died." He lowered his head and sniffled, fighting tears at some unseen memory.

Kohimu sighed and pursed his lips. He looked to Hato. "You're sure about what you saw? You're sure that the parasite possessed…" he stopped, skipping over his sister's name and replacing it with something cold and distant, "The others. You're sure they were possessed and not just acting to fool the parasite?"

Hato was convinced by Osore's shivering and his crying. "I don't know…maybe they were pretending."

"Well I guess that settles it," Kohimu groaned, wiping at the raindrops on his face. "Osore, can you walk?" Without the pressure of keeping up with Inuyasha's inhuman pace Kohimu could follow more slowly with the kids and Mirimi walking.

"I…I think so…"

"Please," Mirimi fell into a bow before him in the mud. "I don't want to go back. Please, just let me go free."

"Fine, go." He waved her away.

"Thank you kind, gentle sir." She leaped to her feet and hurried away, running clumsily through the rain. Her energy and stamina she found to run through the cold, wet, miserable world came from terror. Every step she took away from the north was a little relief, a small chance at hope and the resumption of her free life.

Kohimu watched her go tiredly, fighting his own, brooding, dark fear.

* * *

"Should we discuss my fee then?" Shiroihana asked. Her words jarred Miroku and Masuyo from Kasai at last and their joyful mood soured suddenly.

"What are you talking about?" Kasai asked, frowning with confusion.

Miroku motioned with his staff to where Shiroihana was reclining slightly against one of the support beams of the pavilion. Water streamed from the eaves a few inches from her, splattering on the ground musically. "This is Lady Shiroihana, Lord Sesshomaru's most honorable mother. It was with her help that we were able to find and rescue you, Kasai."

Masuyo finished in a much shorter and ruder sentence of his own, tossing a venomous glare at Shiroihana. "And she wants one of us to come and stay with her as a hostage as payment."

Kasai stayed still, her expression blank as she watched Shiroihana and the inuyoukai woman stared back with a small, hard smile on her lips. Eventually Kasai lowered her head, as if sulking. "Oh, I see."

Kagome climbed up the pavilion steps, ducking under the waterfall curtain running off the eaves. Every step she took splattered and dripped noisily. "Really," she said, shivering. "I think we should just talk all this over first. Lady Shiroihana, why do you want a hostage anyway? I mean, what would they do for you…?"

While Kagome was speaking, Kasai took a step forward and knelt awkwardly to the pavilion floor in a bow to the inuyoukai woman. "I humbly thank you—" her bow had been awkward because she had purposefully positioned herself on top of the obsidian blade that the demon woman had given her to slay Master Dani—"Lady Shiroihana, for saving my life."

While Kasai was doubled over in her bow she closed one hand around the blood-encrusted blade and the other moved, fumbling in her sleeve, searching for something small and hard. She found it and clutched it tightly.

Kagome, still suspicious of Kasai, stopped and stared, watching as what she had dreaded suddenly seemed to be true. But she forced herself to stay quiet, recalling that the last time she had been so sure of something, of Shiroihana betraying them, it had been wrong.

"You have manners, do you?" Shiroihana asked, openly taunting Kasai. "How impressive—for a parasite."

Before any of the humans could react to Shiroihana's words, Kasai shouted and threw the obsidian blade at Shiroihana. The inuyoukai woman sidestepped with amazing agility, and lunged for Kasai to grab her—but Kasai had been counting on that. She tossed down the little bag in her fist and it burst open and filled the air as Shiroihana passed through it. The cloud was a noxious mixture of poisons, harsh scents, and purifying substances. It burned and prickled Shiroihana's skin, but that hardly affected her. It was when the poison hit her eyes that she pulled back, bumping into the support beam of the pavilion and rattling it with such force that the curtain of water from the eaves shuddered.

Kasai flung herself backward, purposefully bowling over Miroku and Masuyo. Her brother rolled off the pavilion, crying out with alarm as he fell in a puddle. Miroku fell with Kasai on top of him. Stunned, blinking in his shock, Miroku had not time to react before Kasai had grabbed his staff and whapped him in the head with it. Miroku's last sight was of his daughter with her wet, frizzing black hair and her violet eyes the same as his own glaring down at her with disgust. His body fell limp and Kasai leaped away from him, moving toward Kagome.

But Kagome was already there. The powerful priestess's hands closed over the staff and glowed dark purple, lighting Kasai's twisted, hard face.

"Kasai! What's the matter with you!" Masuyo yelled, crying. He was already on his feet and trying to get back on top of the pavilion, hurrying to get to his father. He watched with tears swelling in his eyes as Kagome and Kasai began to fight, though it seemed that physically Kasai had the advantage already. The boy looked to where he had last seen Shiroihana but she was gone, vanished.

Suddenly a splash behind him made Masuyo turn. He saw a flash of brown and gold rush at him and then he felt sharp, intense pain, and blackness enclosed him.

Kagome caught sight of the movement to her left where Masuyo was and turned to look just as the newcomer, a young monk in the brown and gold robes of a master, dropped Masuyo limply to the pavilion floor. "No!" Kagome screamed, and then her cry turned into one of pain as Kasai rammed Miroku's staff into her, pressing her up to one of the pavilion's support beams. Kagome's face twisted with pain as she fell to the ground, gasping and holding her stomach.

"Kokushi," Kasai said, sighing. "I was wondering when you'd get here."

"Sorry, sister," the young man said in a smooth, warm voice. "Where is the dog demon?"

"Not dead, never dead, but I doubt she'll be back."

Kagome moaned, trying to get up and regretted it. Not only was the pain intense, a burning, stabbing agony in her gut, but her movement made both Kasai and the monk turn their attention to her. Kasai whipped the staff around, whooshing it through the air. Kagome saw the flash of gold and felt pain explode in her skull. Then she too fell into the blackness.

* * *

Over the next hill, following the stairs set into the treeless slope, Inuyasha, Shippo, Koinu, and Akisame saw the torii gate standing up tall and proud, marking the entrance to a shrine or temple.

"We made it," Koinu said, panting.

"Not quite yet!" Inuyasha shouted. He raced forward and his children and the fox followed, kicking up mud as they ran.

They passed the sickliest, slowest monks and priestesses now. All of them dressed completely in red or blue, stumbling on the wet earth and grass or falling flat because they didn't have the strength to climb the slope. Koinu watched them with wide, saddened blue eyes, wondering what horrors had brought them to such a state. Any one of the priestesses could have been his mother or Kasai and sometimes when he saw one about Kasai's age he slowed and even stopped to peer at her through the grayness of the rain. But not one was Kasai.

There was a small valley just sheltered from the cliffs in a pocket between the hills and mountains. In this little dimple of land a luxurious, green emerald garden sprawled out before them. The trees and flowerbeds were well cared for, weeded and trimmed. The garden was filled with edible treats and Akisame stared at it with hungry eyes, momentarily distracted until Inuyasha barked at her for lingering.

"This place is beautiful," Shippo muttered. "But even with the rain I smell death."

Inuyasha snorted, disgusted. "Me too, Shippo."

Koinu, who had managed to lead the way by a few paces, paused, his body stiffening. He tried to smell the air; to pick up a scent to tell him what was ahead but the rain clogged his nose, making the task impossible. A shape started to come clear through the gray drizzle in the distance.

"Hello?" Koinu called.

Instantly Inuyasha, Akisame, and Shippo were at his side, formed up in a defensive line. Inuyasha growled and laid his hand over Tetsusaiga's sheath. "All right, enough of this. Stop right there!" he shouted.

The figure slowed for a moment and then resumed walking, but now it was running.

"Fucker!" Inuyasha snapped, "I said stop!"

Before he could draw Tetsusaiga, a female voice rang out making all of them drop their tense stances. It was Kasai. "Inuyasha!" she shouted, "Koinu! Shippo! Akisame!"

Koinu and Shippo charged forward to greet her while Inuyasha and Akisame stayed back. As Shippo and Koinu laughed and enveloped Kasai in warm hugs, Inuyasha grunted and turned toward Akisame with a troubled scowl. "You know, when we were on our way here I smelled something on the wind and it's so damned frustrating this rain, I can't smell anything…"

"What did you smell?" Akisame asked as she started to walk forward.

"It came out of the sky. Your mother, Miroku, and Masuyo." There had been another scent too, but Inuyasha didn't bother repeating that because he scarcely knew what to make of it at all. Perhaps he had imagined it…?

"Out of the sky?" Akisame muttered, shaking her head and sending water splattering onto her father. "I think you've lost it Dad."

"No—I thought," he stopped, huffing and dismissing his own thoughts with a growl. "Never mind." He crossed his arms over his chest and stood defiantly dripping in the garden mist and drizzle while he watched Akisame at last move forward to smile and greet Kasai as well.

Shippo was bombarding her with questions. Koinu, meanwhile, could only stare at her dripping bangs, her small, warm smile, and her bright violet eyes—and then he stopped, blinking with alarm. Kasai was _too_ happy, _too_ bright. He bit his lips, suddenly uneasy. As Akisame came up behind him, Koinu jutted his foot out, cutting his sister's route off.

"Koinu," Akisame grumbled, elbowing him. "Were you trying to trip me?"

Kasai watched their interaction smiling lightly, showing her teeth. _How odd,_ Koinu thought. He fought to keep his ears from flattening to alert her or the others of his distress.

"Isn't he mean?" Kasai asked, looking at Akisame. Her nose wrinkled, the way Koinu remembered from their earliest days together as tiny children. When Kohimu and Tisoki had teased her for the little wrinkle Kasai had worked to stop it. Koinu hadn't seen the wrinkle so unrestrained, so obnoxiously cute, for years.

Akisame shook herself off, splattering Koinu and Kasai. When she'd finished she grinned proudly, knowing that the motion would've irritated Kasai and Koinu and Shippo too. But now Koinu hardly noticed the droplets that her shaking cast onto his face or flicked into his eyes. Kasai cringed at them but then laughed lightly. The wrinkle formed again in her nose with the smile. Her violet eyes moved to Koinu at last and her smile dropped, changing with concern. "Koinu?"

"What's with that look?" Shippo asked, nudging Koinu playfully. "Aren't you happy to see her?"

"How did you get away?" Koinu blurted out. His blue eyes narrowed and he took a step back from her.

"What?" she asked, startled.

"How did all the monks and priestesses escape? Who set them free?" Koinu asked, his voice growing desperate and higher with his alarm.

"What the hell's going on over here?" Inuyasha asked. He stomped forward and pushed his way between Akisame and Koinu. He knew with one glance at his son that Koinu was upset. "Koinu?"

Kasai's gaze moved slowly from Shippo to Koinu, to Inuyasha and finally to Akisame. The innocent, soft set of her face changed suddenly, twisting viciously. She reached out and grabbed Inuyasha's hand, squeezing it. Even as Inuyasha pulled back from her a bright purple light flew up and expanded, passing over his body. The hanyou stumbled and fell to his knees, crying out in pain. His hair flashed, rippling as the color changed until it became black.

"What the hell?" Akisame shrieked, moving instantly to help her father.

Koinu lunged forward without thinking, grabbing Kasai's hands. "Kasai!" he shouted, "What's the matter with you?"

She grinned cruelly, amused by him. A second later the source of her amusement hit him as more purple energy passed from her body into Koinu's. The pup cried out and fell backward as his body warped and twisted around him, undergoing the transformation. When he looked up at Kasai a second later his hair was pitch black like Inuyasha and Akisame's, but his eyes were still sky-blue. "Kasai…"

Her foot rose up and collided with his face. Koinu tasted blood and mud at once as his body hit the slick grass.

"Koinu!" Akisame screamed, suddenly terrified.

Inuyasha pulled on his daughter's hand, yanking hurriedly on Tetsusaiga. "Aki, take Tetsusaiga…"

Shippo had backed away from Kasai and he crouched on the ground, watching helplessly. His green eyes were wide and his mouth gaping. If he attacked her somehow he risked being purified—killed. If he attacked her with a weapon he could kill her easily with his inhuman strength. Neither option was acceptable. He moved to help Akisame, bounding over to her on all-fours.

Akisame Tetsusaiga and lifted the blade, gritting her teeth. She saw Kasai standing over her brother's unmoving body and felt rage building up inside her. When she hefted the sword up and brought it back down, smacking it into the grass, the blade warmed in her hands and expanded to its full, fang size.

"That's it, Aki," Inuyasha told her, getting to his feet uncertainly. His knees quaked beneath him but Shippo moved in to be his crutch and Inuyasha accepted the help readily.

Kasai hesitated when she saw the impressive fang. Then she smiled sweetly. "You can't kill me, Akisame."

"You want to bet your life on that?" Akisame demanded, but her palms were slick with sweat and she could feel the pulse of the sword, its power, warbling with her uncertainty. She gnashed her teeth together and focused on her brother bleeding in the grass. "You're not Kasai! Kasai always called me Aki. You're some fake copy of her."

"I am not Kasai, true. This is her body though." Kasai took a step forward and ducked down to push Koinu over onto his back.

"What the hell are you doing?" Inuyasha roared, rushing forward a little until Shippo dug his heels into the ground and stopped him.

Koinu was awake. He blinked blearily up at Kasai and sniffed at the blood that was pouring out of his nose. His blue eyes met with her violet for a moment and his face worked with grief. "Kasai…"

She ignored him and leaned over his body to grab Burikko from his waist. The sound of the metal clanging on metal made Koinu cringe.

"Koinu!" Akisame screamed. "Run! Get out of there!"

Inuyasha growled as fiercely as he could considering that he was human and raced forward, leaving Shippo and Aki behind Tetsusaiga's protection. "Get the hell away from him!"

Kasai lowered Burikko and dropped into a fighting stance, ready to take him, but Inuyasha surprised her. Rather than colliding with her, Inuyasha dropped and skidded on his hands and feet past where Koinu lied in the grass. He knocked her feet out from under her and Kasai fell with a faint, high pitched shriek. Burikko slammed down onto the ground with her.

Inuyasha scrabbled for Koinu, pulling on him. "Get up! Get up! _Get up!"_

Koinu fought his father, reaching for Burikko where it had fallen into the dewy, moist grass.

"_Koinu!"_ Akisame shrieked in panic.

Shippo mirrored her frantic cries with his own. "Inuyasha, Koinu! _Get out of there!"_

A foot smashed down on Koinu's hand just as he grabbed hold of Burikko. The owner of the foot was a monk dressed in brown and gold robes. Koinu cried out and Inuyasha lunged in an attack, bowling over the monk to free his son. He fell into the wet grass, wrestling with the monk.

Koinu snatched up Burikko and rose, stumbling to his feet at the same time as Kasai. He held up the little woman's sword and faced her, narrowing his eyes. "Kasai—I don't know what's happened to you but listen to me! We can help you now. Are you still in there, Kasai?" His voice wavered with emotional and physical pain alike.

Kasai stared back at him with cold, violent eyes. Her long black hair hung limply around her face, drenched and dripping. Bits of grass were stuck on her neck and cheeks and all over her kimono.

Suddenly Inuyasha screamed with pain.

"_Dad!"_ Akisame yelled, moving forward to help him. Tetsusaiga weighed her down but she took it with her, dragging it along the grass. It wedged up a layer of green from the lawn. Shippo moved behind her tentatively, aware that a few sparks of spiritual power had the potential to gravely wound or maim him for life.

Koinu tried to keep himself from looking away from Kasai at the sounds of his father's screams, but he couldn't stop the overwhelming need from making him do it anyway. He had a second in which he saw the monk hunkered over his father like a lion on a kill, biting Inuyasha's shoulder through his haori. "_Dad—_Father…"

Kasai pounced on Koinu then, grabbing his wrist and twisting it. The pup cried out with pain but held onto the blade stubbornly. He brought his leg forward and kicked out Kasai's knees. She fell with a cry but her grip on his wrist hadn't faltered and so she dragged him down with her. He landed squarely on top of her and found himself blinking down into her face. Kasai snarled at him as she lifted her legs up and kicked at him. Koinu rolled away from her and miraculously she released her grip on his wrist, leaving him with the sword.

Inuyasha was still screaming, struggling with the monk. The sounds of his father's struggle followed Koinu. As soon as he was free he turned his back on Kasai and leaped for the monk, lowering Burikko for the strike.

Kasai sat up in the grass behind him and shouted at the monk with alarm. "Brother! Look out behind you!"

The monk lifted his head at the last moment. For a split-second Koinu saw the monk's face before he collided with him: there was a ring of blood around his mouth, a few drops dribbling from his teeth and his lips…

Akisame was screaming, howling more like an animal than an intelligent being. She was caught, unable to use the Tetsusaiga to free her father without killing him in the process. When she caught sight of the monk's face she abandoned all caution, even though Inuyasha was intermittently shouting for her to keep her distance, and charged to make sure she got a piece of the monk along with her brother.

But Koinu beat her to it.

Koinu smashed into the monk, ramming Burikko through him like a skewer in a barbeque rotisserie. They rolled in the grass together, one screaming in rage, the other squealing in pain.

Kasai rushed after them, shouting, "Brother! Brother, no!"

Akisame rammed Kasai, bowling her over. As Kasai fell, caught off-guard, Akisame swung Tetsusaiga and swiped the young demon slayer with the broad side of the blade, using it like a club. Kasai collapsed, breathing shakily as the wind had been knocked out of her. "If you get up I'll fucking kill you!"

Several yards away Koinu stumbled back from the monk, pulling Burikko out with him. The monk twitched in the grass, his mouth opening and closing on their air. His brown eyes were wide, the pupils constricted with shock. He pawed at the grass and made a coughing sound. "Kisei…"

"Brother!" Kasai-Kisei answered him. Her lips were parted, showing her teeth in a gruesome facsimile of a smile, the grin of grief.

"That isn't your brother," Akisame growled. She moved Tetsusaiga closer to Kasai, threatening her. Kasai glared at her over the sword.

Breathing hard, Koinu circled the gasping, bleeding monk like a shark. He noticed with a brief note of shock that his claws had returned and he could feel the rain on his white dog ears again. The monk lied on the ground, gnashing his teeth together and pawing at the grass as his blood poured into the greenery. Koinu circled him for a time, growling, waiting for some sign that the monk would attack again, but the large amount of blood and his slowing movements indicated that he had ceased being a threat.

Flicking Burikko off in the rain, Koinu turned to look back at Akisame and his father. His ears drooped pathetically, dripping with the rain. Inuyasha was sitting up, shaking his head and inspecting his latest wounds with shaking hands. "Dad, are you okay?" Koinu asked, beginning to shiver.

"I'm fine," Inuyasha said, but his voice was raspy from screaming and Koinu thought his father's movement was too slow, his hands too pale.

Anger rushed through Koinu and he whirled back to the monk. The monk was still breathing, but his face was a mask of pain. Around his mouth a ring of Inuyasha's blood remained, still gleaming ruby-red in the rain. Koinu lifted Burikko and bared his teeth. He had felt very little rage in his life, very little of the carnal power that flowed within his veins, passed on by his father and before that from his god-like grandfather. Now it rushed through him, burning.

He advanced on the dying monk, snarling and cursing. "Monster! I'll slit you open and leave you to fucking rot!"

"No!" Kasai shrieked, her voice high and crying. "Koinu!"

Koinu ignored her and raised Burikko over the monk throat, narrowing his blue eyes with hate. But then he heard Akisame scream with pain and his wrath changed into horror. He turned and saw that Kasai had touched Akisame, purifying her. Tetsusaiga dropped from Akisame's hands as the girl collapsed.

Instantly Inuyasha shouted and tried to get to his feet to save his daughter but his pale, shaky arms and legs refused to move. The muscles seized up and he collapsed back to the grass like a newborn fawn. Shippo materialized, popping into help support him and Inuyasha grabbed hold of the kit with both hands.

Koinu rushed by Inuyasha and Shippo, calling his sister's name. He held Burikko, ready to fight and heedless of the fact that he was closing in on a trained demon slayer with spiritual power. As the transformed Akisame kicked and fought with Kasai, trying to keep the demon slayer from getting a good grip on her, Koinu barreled down on them. Kasai turned at the last moment, her violet eyes widening. Behind her Akisame kicked her, knocking Kasai forward.

"Get out of there Aki!" Inuyasha hollered, grunting as he got to his feet with Shippo's support.

When Koinu reached her he jabbed Burikko at her, trying to hold her in her place as Kasai had earlier with Tetsusaiga. Kasai ducked his attack and fell onto the grass on her hands and knees. Her hand shot out and clasped Koinu's ankle, glowing purple. The spiritual power coursed from her body and into his, making Koinu hiss with pain—but only for a moment. The pain ceased abruptly, and Koinu blinked as he realized that his claws had not vanished and his hair was still white.

"It didn't purify him," Shippo gasped.

Kasai released his ankle, her mouth hung open in shock. Her fingertips still glowed with the purple energy but it hadn't worked at all on Koinu. Instead the pup reacted to it as if he were already human…

Looking up at the dog-eared youth, Kisei the parasite knew that she was on unequal footing. If she could not purify Koinu she would have to fight against his superior strength. She had her host's memories of sparring throughout her life with the boy, but Kisei was cautious as a parasite and she suspected that Koinu had held himself back in the memories she had. With the lives of his family on the line he would probably do anything…but could he kill her?

* * *

Next time:

Akisame/Shiroihana: _"Where is the parasite?" Akisame asked. She had come to stand near Koinu and Kasai, but she kept her distance from Shiroihana. Akisame held the Tetsusaiga in its dull, dinged katana form. She held it out in front of Kasai's face, silently threatening her with it. _

_Shiroihana's eyes stayed with the Tetsusaiga for a time. Her golden eyes narrowed. "How interesting," she murmured. "I have not seen that fang for a very long time."_

Koinu/Kasai: _Blood bubbled out of the wound, soaking into the grass around Kasai's shoulders and her head. Koinu shouted at her incoherently and cried, heedless of the tears. He touched her face and saw that her eyes blinked reflexively, but they were already hazy and unseeing, __**dead**__. Koinu pulled his hands away and found that they were covered, drenched with her blood, thick and sticky._


	29. Meidouseki

A/N: So Aug 21 I move into my apartment to go to school again. That Succccccckkkkss. I'm soliciting agents and publishers with my novel at the same time now. Sigh. No results yet. One agent down, a couple dozen left. I'm forcing my little sister to read my edited novel for consistency errors. I hate those. Did you know, dialect is BAD writing? So if Inuyasha is speaking and I represent it this way: "I told ya we're not goin' that way! Fuckin' A!" (Of course that's a OOC example) I am looking down on the character and that is a no-no in writing courses. Dropping the g's and things like ya are improper now. I think it's a stupid rule, but I'm going to have to edit it from my novel.

Anyway, enough babbling! This chapter excited me! It was a blast to write! Here's hoping it's a blast for you all to read too!

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Kohimu was left outside with Mirimi, Osore, and Hato after Osore fell from his back. Hato claimed that Osore was possessed when he stopped breathing, but Kohimu found no immediate evidence and he released Mirimi when she begged to leave. Kasai attacked Shiroihana and the inuyoukai woman vanished. She took out Miroku, Masuyo, and with help from Kenpo/Kokushi, she took out Kagome too. Then Koinu, Inuyasha, Shippo, and Akisame met up with her. The reunion was brief as Koinu suspected her immediately. Kasai attacked them by purifying IY and Koinu. Shippo, unable to handle that kind of threat, kept his distance. Kokushi/Kenpo came and attacked IY and Koinu killed him and regained his demonic powers. Kasai purified Aki and Koinu came to save her. Kasai tried to purify him for a second time but it didn't work.

* * *

**Meidou-seki**

In the moment of stillness between all of them, Koinu felt his rage dissipate. He saw Akisame rise to her feet a short distance away, strong though she was human. Her eyes had paled into a sky blue exactly like his own. Her hair, however, had stayed its usual deep and glossy black. Behind him Inuyasha and Shippo were breathing and shuddering in the rain. The drizzle splashed musically in a nearby koi pond, it flowed off the eaves of the nearest building in wide gray waterfalls.

And then Kasai's nostrils flared and her face twisted up with rage. "You killed my brother," she snarled.

"He wasn't your brother!" Koinu yelled. His body began to shake with renewed anger. "Your brother is outside and another brother is with your mother, Aunt Sango!"

She ignored his little speech and her violet eyes flicked toward Akisame, narrowing with bitterness. "I don't know how but you and that little bitch have powers." She licked her lips. "I could use a meal."

Koinu's ears flattened and he edged nearer to her, pressing Burikko closer. "Why are you taunting me?" he demanded. Burikko's tip quivered in front of Kasai's face. Kasai stared past the blade, meeting his gaze with a small, bitter smile.

"Because I know you can't kill me," she said. "You think I'm like your sister." Her voice lightened though her expression stayed hard and bitter. "We grew up together, didn't we, Koinu?"

Koinu's shoulders worked, moving up and down as he tried to breathe. He blinked against the rain. "Stop talking," he growled.

"What do we do with her?" Shippo asked. Inuyasha was propped up on his shoulder with his head drooping in exhaustion and his long black hair drenched and dribbling.

"I think she's a fake," Akisame said, sneering. "I think the real Kasai is somewhere else…"

"What wishful thinking, girl."

The unexpectedness of the strong, deep female voice made all of them, even Kasai at the pointy end of her own sword, lift their heads with alarm and shock. A tall figure moved from around a nearby pine with a bushy base, the source of the voice. It was a woman in a dark blue kimono with embroidered butterflies and a huge mass of white fur wrapped about her shoulders. Though she was walking through the wet grass and mud like the rest of them her kimono had not dirtied and her white fluff managed to stay puffy.

"You," Kasai spat, glaring. "How are your eyes?"

"Who the hell are you?" Inuyasha yelled, snapping alert and sniffing at the air though as a human he wouldn't find any answers there, old habits were hard to kill. He started to pull away from Shippo but stumbled when he tried to stand alone. Shippo pushed himself back up under Inuyasha's arm, bearing most of his weight as they turned to face the strange youkai woman. Already Inuyasha felt in his gut that she was connected to Sesshomaru, and to the scent he'd picked up of Miroku, Masuyo, and Kagome from out of the sky.

"I am Lady Shiroihana," the demon woman announced, coolly. "And I have come to stop this parasite," she lifted her clawed hand and pointed to Kasai, "from killing all of you."

"We can't kill her," Koinu shouted, frowning.

"Wait," Akisame said, addressing Shiroihana, "Is she a fake? Do you know what happened here?" She glanced at Koinu and said, "If this lady says she's a fake…"

"She is both the parasite and the girl. This place, it was the home of the century-parasite, a beast that reproduces only once every hundred years. And as I anticipated, the beast has spawned and this girl and the monk were the result." Shiroihana lifted her head and narrowed her golden eyes, red-rimmed from her encounter with Kasai's poison. "Now there is only one thing left to learn."

"What are you babbling about, lady?" Inuyasha snapped.

Shiroihana didn't answer him or even spare him a glance. She lowered one arm and flexed her fingers. A green glow extended out and curled on the moist green grass at her feet. Her gaze fixed on Kasai.

"No," Kasai cried. "Please…" She turned back to Koinu and opened her mouth to say something but she was already too late. Shiroihana's whip flew out, green and glowing. It snapped and wrapped around Kasai's arms and her torso.

Koinu stumbled back from it and for the space of an eye blink he saw Kasai's stricken expression, her furrowed brow, the pain of the whip as its spectral energy burned at her clothes and her skin. He dropped Burikko and took a step after her, as if to help, but then caught himself and stopped short. Akisame ran to him and grabbed his arm, pulling him back toward Inuyasha and Shippo. "Come on Koinu…"

Shiroihana reeled Kasai in like a fisherman hauling in the fish at the end of his line. Kasai had fallen over and her cheek was smeared with mud and grass from being dragged. She whimpered and cried out faintly, struggling against the spectral and poisonous whip.

"You." Shiroihana pointed to Koinu with the hand that wasn't producing the whip. "You must hold her. Her power cannot touch you."

"Hey lady!" Inuyasha barked, "I don't know who you think you are but his name's Koinu and he's _my_ son, not your servant!"

"Inuyasha," Shippo muttered from where he was positioned as Inuyasha's crutch. "She's right. Koinu wasn't purified by Kasai the second time. He's safe."

The hanyou-turned-human growled weakly as he watched Koinu move forward, cursing his own weakness. He reached out for Akisame and pulled her closer. "Stay here, Aki," he ordered.

A few feet shy of where Kasai lied in the grass, baring her teeth like an animal and writhing against the whip, Koinu stopped. His jaw squared and his ears fell flat as he stared between Shiroihana and Kasai. The demon woman's whip colored Kasai's face green and it caught the shine of moisture in her eyes and the raindrops on her face and in her black hair.

"What are you going to do to her?" Koinu asked, gradually lifting his eyes to stare at the proud, noble—although drenched inuyoukai woman. Though Koinu couldn't smell her very well through the rain he was certain just by her features that she was Sesshomaru's mother, or perhaps his sister, age was impossible to tell amongst inuyoukai.

"There is a parasite somewhere within her body," Shiroihana said. "You must find it and remove it by cutting her open."

Kasai spluttered, choking on the rain and grimacing at the whip. Her body had begun to smoke. Her face twisted with pain but she managed to laugh cynically and glare up at Koinu. "You know that will kill this body! It will kill us both, Koinu! You can't kill me. You can't—so cut this demon down and set me free!"

"Don't do it, Koinu!" Akisame yelled, growling in her high pitched voice. "Don't listen to the parasite! It's lying to survive!"

"If you set her free she'll just bite you like the monk bit Inuyasha!" Shippo yelled.

Koinu turned away from Kasai, looking back at his sister, his father, and the fox. "I'm not that stupid. I know she's lying…" He swallowed hard when he saw his father's pale, pained face and then glanced back at Kasai and felt nausea bloom inside him. _Cut her open? Cut Kasai open and remove the parasite?_ He felt pressure building behind his eyes, the first tears, and a force constrict around his chest making him tense.

"This is only half of what she and the monk have done," Shiroihana revealed. Her white bangs dripped around her face though miraculously her face remained dry. She smiled darkly.

"What do you mean?" Koinu asked.

Shiroihana pulled on the whip, jerking Kasai at the other end and making her cry out. The stink of singed flesh reached both Koinu and Shiroihana's noses. "This parasite," Shiroihana began, "has already mowed down her true father and her true brother—and then she attacked a priestess that I believe to be your mother."

Inuyasha lurched forward shakily, snarling. "What the hell are you saying? Where's Kagome?"

Shiroihana lifted the hand that wasn't holding her whip and pointed deeper into the shrine. "She is with a monk and a young boy a short distance from here. I believe the parasite monk and this girl were planning to eat them later. Go after them, hanyou. Perhaps they are all still living; I did not stop to check."

Inuyasha growled, gnashing his teeth in frustration. He already knew that Shiroihana's words were true but he was torn between leaving to help Kagome, Masuyo, and Miroku or staying to protect Koinu and Akisame. Of course, in his weakened state after the monk had bitten him, Inuyasha was hardly a help to anyone. That was what made up his mind for the time being.

"Akisame," he said, reaching out and grabbing his daughter's hand. She was already staring at him with her human blue eyes, crinkled at the edges with worry. "Get Tetsusaiga and stay with your brother," he ordered.

Akisame nodded solemnly and suddenly she was blinking rapidly, fighting tears. "Daddy—say hi to Mom for me…" she sniffed and tried to smile.

Inuyasha nodded and with Shippo's help they began walking away, further into the shrine grounds to find Kagome, Masuyo, and Miroku.

"Now that we've finished with that nonsense…" Shiroihana flicked her fingers and the whip disappeared suddenly, dissolving magically into the air.

Kasai cringed, lying still. She stared up at Koinu through lidded eyes. Her kimono and her sleeves had been burned most of the way through. Underneath her skin was red and inflamed. She breathed hard and flexed her hands, shaking the raindrops out of her eyes.

"Hold her," Shiroihana shouted. Her voice had a quality like thunder; she was accustomed to ordering others about.

Koinu knelt and grabbed Kasai by the shoulders. She struggled, twisting as she tried to haul herself back onto her feet. Koinu rolled her over and put his full weight onto her, pressing one knee to her legs, another into the small of her back. Her arms flailed, her fists impacting on his thighs and his back but Koinu bit the insides of his cheeks, refusing to move. Kasai's hands glowed purple and she slapped him using spiritual energy. Although Koinu cringed and felt a brief tingle he did not transform.

"Where is the parasite?" Akisame asked. She had come to stand near Koinu and Kasai, but she kept her distance from Shiroihana. Akisame held the Tetsusaiga in its dull, dinged katana form. She held it out in front of Kasai's face, silently threatening her with it.

Shiroihana's eyes stayed with the Tetsusaiga for a time. Her golden eyes narrowed. "How interesting," she murmured. "I have not seen that fang for a very long time."

"Where's the parasite, lady?" Akisame repeated, glaring.

"I have no knowledge of that," Shiroihana admitted. "You must search for it."

"Search for it?" Koinu blustered, appalled. "What, like a dissection? I can't do that—I won't do it!"

"This parasite may have killed your mother," Shiroihana reminded him, coldly. "The creature below you is more parasite than girl. Perhaps you should consider your actions as a release, boy. Surely the girl would have preferred death than to have succumbed to a parasite that used her body to kill and eat her own family…"

Koinu choked, closing his eyes as he stared down at Kasai's profile, her cheek pressed by his weight into the mud. Her eye was closed, seemingly she had given up. Her arms lied still on either side of her, clutching occasionally at the wet grass. _She's right; Kasai never would've wanted to live like this…but…_

"I see," Shiroihana said, sighing lightly. "If you are unable to do it, boy—I will."

"What?" Koinu and Akisame both looked up at the inuyoukai with alarm, but they were already too late. In the time that it had taken them to lift their heads to stare at her, Shiroihana had drawn a small blade from under her shoulder fluff and flicked it down and forward with a deadly aim. The little dagger flew through the rain, flashing past Koinu, and thwacked Kasai in the back of the neck.

Kasai's mouth opened as did her eyes, wide and shocked. Her hands and arms snapped taut, showing every muscle as her body strained for a microsecond, then fell limp.

"Kasai!" Koinu abandoned his position holding her down and instantly grabbed the dagger from her neck. "Kasai! No, no…"

Blood bubbled out of the wound, soaking into the grass around Kasai's shoulders and her head. Koinu shouted at her incoherently and cried, heedless of the tears. He touched her face and saw that her eyes blinked reflexively, but they were already hazy and unseeing, _dead._ Koinu pulled his hands away and found that they were covered, drenched with her blood, thick and sticky.

"What the hell is your problem?" Akisame screamed. She took a step back from her brother and Kasai's body and bared her teeth as she hefted Tetsusaiga. The sword would never transform for her but Akisame advanced on Shiroihana anyway, growling in her high, raspy human voice. "You fucking killed her! Why? You didn't say anything about killing her!"

The dull, rusty Tetsusaiga slashed through the air, brushing Shiroihana's white-furred shoulders. The inuyoukai woman reached one hand out and grabbed it, pulling roughly on it. Akisame held on doggedly to the handle and Shiroihana pushed backward, knocking the crying mortal girl harmlessly into the grass. "I have made your job very easy," Shiroihana muttered. "Do not waste my time, children."

"You bitch!" Koinu howled, lunging at her.

Shiroihana blocked his attack with one arm and pushed him back as well with hardly any effort. Koinu's hands and claws left red, bloody streaks over the soft blue fabric of her kimono. He had even managed to touch the fluff at her shoulders, staining it red with Kasai's blood. Shiroihana pawed disgustedly at the red spots with one hand while she spoke to the two mourning siblings. "I have the power to recall her from hell. But the parasite must be removed first or it will be summoned as well." She glanced up at them harshly. "Do not distract me or the girl will run out of time."

* * *

Inuyasha and Shippo found the pavilion with four bodies spread out on it. Masuyo lying over Miroku, Kagome sprawled out in a puddle of rainwater at the edge of the pavilion, and an older man in a red-brown robe, a master monk. On first inspection they thought that the monk was fat, but as they came closer they realized that his bulk was a second set of arms that was hidden under his robe, which had come partially open in the struggle that had led up to his death. His throat was slit and he was lying in a pool of his own blood.

They had barely reached the pavilion and started examining the carnage when they heard Koinu's voice coming through the grayness of the rain. Inuyasha tensed, frowning. "Shit," he cursed. "Go back Shippo—as fast as you can!"

The kit turned and slowly shook his head at Inuyasha. "No, it wouldn't help now."

"What the hell are you talking about? That bitch, she did something to Kasai, Aki or Koinu could be next," he growled, trying to hoist himself up to his feet using the beams supporting the pavilion roof.

Shippo popped up in front of him in a little brown cloud, blocking his path. "You're human, Inuyasha. You can't hear what they're saying, but I can. Kasai's dead but I thought this might happen."

"What?" Inuyasha demanded.

Shippo bit his lip and his green eyes darkened with sadness. "I've heard of Lady Shiroihana before. She's a medium. She has a power like Tenseiga to bring people back from the dead."

"You think that bitch is going to bring Kasai back?" Inuyasha snarled. He lowered his eyes, beginning to comprehend the loss they were discussing as he saw Miroku's body nearby, motionless on the pavilion floor. Miroku's only daughter—dead. Inuyasha's face twisted with grief. "Damn," he groaned, wiping at his face with one hand though there were no obvious tears, only remnants of the rain.

"She's here, isn't she?" Shippo asked. His shoulders moved and he sniffled, fighting his own emotions. "Kohimu and Tisoki said Miroku went to ask for Sesshomaru's help. Lady Shiroihana must be giving it."

Inuyasha shook his head. "No Shippo, I ain't stupid enough to trust this bitch—"

A small, weak voice rose up behind them and both Inuyasha and Shippo craned their necks around to look at the source. It was Masuyo, moaning as he opened his eyes and noticed the fox and the human Inuyasha. "Uncle…Inu…?"

* * *

In the end they did as Shiroihana ordered and stared on in horror or covered their eyes in shame. Shiroihana moved over Kasai's body, turned her blank and wide, unseeing eyes up to face the light drizzle of the rain. She tugged open the girl's kimono, exposing the black bodysuit of the demon slayer trade beneath it. Her long, powerful claws moved over Kasai's body, pressing and feeling.

For a time Akisame tried to stand alone, upright and proud while she held the dull Tetsusaiga. But the blade shook and quavered in her hands and eventually she rested the tip on the ground and then suddenly broke into loud, wild sobbing.

Koinu, a few feet away from her, stared down at his useless hands and at Burikko where he'd dropped it near Kasai's body. He couldn't look at Kasai, the shock of her lifeless stare, of the way she didn't blink when the rain hit her face or her eyes, it was too much. When Akisame broke down and collapsed, dropping Tetsusaiga and crying hysterically, Koinu crawled over the wet grass and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

Normally Akisame wore a brave, hard front, a little as Kasai often had. Now she abandoned it and returned her brother's embrace, adding her tears to his already-drenched haori. Koinu laid his cheek over the top of her head and let his own tears flow. His breathing came in jagged bursts, leaving him dizzy. The sounds of his sister's cries, howling like an infant, had a sick quality to them because they resembled laughter. It was mocking that two such different emotions, elation and grief, could sound so alike.

Shiroihana found a spot in the middle of the girl's spine that rippled beneath her hands, moving with a spasm at her prodding touch. She rolled the girl back onto her back, pressing her lifeless face into the grass and laid open her black bodysuit as well as the surface of the girl's back. The bright white of bone blazed up at her. It was the girl's vertebrae and over it Shiroihana saw thin black tendrils, little antennae or tentacles for the parasite. She paused in her work and delicately touched one, watching as it flinched away from her and the open air, running away.

_The parasite enters the body and controls her through the spine. And over a great amount of time it changes the body that houses it into a creature like the head master of this miserable place. _

Shiroihana pulled back her sleeve in a fluid motion and struck like a snake, snatching out the parasite. It fought her and held onto the girl's insides. The tendrils—there were eight of them, like the legs of a spider—had connections further up on the spine and lower and they stretched elastically, unwilling to break. Shiroihana crushed the thing in her fist, digging her claws into it. It squelched sickeningly and an opaque liquid oozed out of it as if she were wringing a sponge, dribbling onto the girl's shredded kimono and bodysuit. At last the thing released the girl and Shiroihana tossed the parasite away. It bounced and rolled, coming to a stop at the base of a flowerbed.

Swiftly, Shiroihana closed the girl's clothing and turned her over onto her back once more. As she lifted the Meidou-seki from her chest, she gazed over at the mourning siblings, holding onto one another and sobbing. They were Inutaisho's grandchildren, not her own, but they were Hanone and Saya's cousins. In spite of herself she felt curiosity and a slight interest in them. She harbored a darker feeling toward Inuyasha, the product of her own husband's adultery, and yet Inuyasha, even while human, reminded her greatly of Inutaisho.

Sighing, Shiroihana lifted the girl's head and slipped the Meidou-seki onto her. She adjusted the necklace over Kasai's chest, putting it slightly to the left where her heart would be and then she reached up and shut the girl's eyes, hiding her unseeing stare. She rose to her feet and backed away two steps. Under the drizzling mist of the rain she shuddered, shaking herself lightly and watching.

The Meidou-seki glowed. Its dark center lightened, becoming bone-white and glowing like the orbs that floated around Kagetsu palace. The light expanded, illuminating Kasai's face and catching Koinu and Akisame's attentions. They gazed at the light as it pulsed three times and then fell dark once more. The world held its breath in the seconds that followed, waiting. A koi fish leapt in its pond, the trees dripped massive, thick raindrops that had accumulated on their leaves.

Kasai's chest jerked then and her mouth opened wide as she gasped hungrily at the air. Then she rolled over and coughed violently, pawing at her throat. Her violet eyes snapped open wide and unfocused.

"Kasai!" Koinu ran at her, nearly tripping at the last moment as his feet slid out on the grass. He pulled her close to him, embracing her just as he had with Akisame. Kasai shuddered in his arms, shaking convulsively. Her breathing was hard and heavy as she fought to make up for the few minutes and her lack of oxygen. Slowly, with weak fingers, she gripped Koinu's wet haori and the pup grinned through his tears at her movement. As small as it was, every cough and gasp, every little flick of her fingers meant she was alive and fighting to stay that way.

Akisame walked up slowly behind them, sniffling and shaking. She stooped and picked up Tetsusaiga. A few feet from where her brother was holding Kasai, Akisame nodded at Shiroihana. "Thank you…" she swallowed, trying to regain some strength in her voice. "Miss—w-what's your name again?"

"You may call me Lady Shiroihana, girl. But we shall part soon. Do not expect me to step in and help your family or the monk's family again." Shiroihana stepped forward and motioned at Koinu. "Boy, give me the Meidou-seki around her neck."

Awkwardly, sniffling, Koinu fumbled with the heavy necklace, stripping it from Kasai. He handed it off to Shiroihana and the demon woman slipped it back on over her head.

As she turned to go, Akisame cried out, "Wait!"

Shiroihana paused and glanced over her shoulder. "What is it now, girl?"

"Y-you're sure…" Akisame stammered, nervously. "You're sure Kasai is normal now? The parasite is gone."

"Physically, yes. But considering the short lifetime of humans she may never quite recover from it in all ways." Shiroihana shrugged and shook lightly, sending a fine spray of water from off her shoulders and her hair. "You may find I have performed the easiest task in giving her life. She may wish I had left her dead."

"What are you talking about?" Akisame demanded, frowning—but she already knew on some level. Surviving something was often the easy part, living with _how_ one survived usually proved the hardest. Even Akisame knew from her own experience. The stink of the fox Ratsuwan still haunted her at night and though she struggled against such feelings, Akisame had trouble standing Shippo's presence because of his eye color and his scent. Male eyes that looked on her with attraction repulsed her and she often found herself uncertain and lost, lacking her usual bravado and confidence. The Akisame before the kitsune brothel would've fought the wolf youkai that had watched her bathing in the river, and she would've worked harder to escape her uncle or to reach her father when Sesshomaru blocked the path.

Shiroihana didn't answer her last question. The inuyoukai woman turned her back on Akisame and walked off into the rain.

* * *

Masuyo worked like a zombie, arranging his father and Kagome together, side-by-side on the pavilion. Luck had smiled on Masuyo this time. His attacker had been the possessed monk, not Kasai. The monk hadn't struck Masuyo very hard so the boy suffered only a minor headache and a general haze of confusion. He moved in slow motion, but with Shippo's help they began wrapping up Kagome and Miroku's heads. Unlike Masuyo, Kagome and Miroku had met up with the hardness of Miroku's staff. Their heads were bruised and swollen and there was even blood from a scratch on Miroku's forehead. Masuyo and Shippo tore bits of clothing off and soaked them under the water pouring from the eaves to make cold compresses—though they weren't that cold.

Inuyasha sat nearby, straining his ears, with his head lowered in defeat. His black hair had begun to frizz as it tried to dry under the protection of the pavilion.

Shippo made a small noise then, a little gasp. Inuyasha glanced up at it and narrowed his blue eyes out at the green, misty gardens. He recognized Shiroihana, moving gracefully toward the pavilion. She stopped several feet away and smiled up at the human hanyou, the fox, and Masuyo, who had yet to notice her arrival.

"I see this is still a bad time to exact my fee from the monk," she remarked.

Inuyasha sneered at her. "What the hell did you do to Kasai?"

Shiroihana's small, clever smile faded. Her face took on a distinct look of annoyance. "I tire of repeating myself. When the monk awakens tell him that I will find him at a later date and choose one of his sons as my hostage."

Shippo gaped at her. "Hostage?"

Next to him Masuyo looked up and out to Shiroihana. His eyes filled immediately with tears though he said nothing.

"What the hell did you do to Kasai?" Inuyasha shouted, unwilling to sit and be ignored quietly.

Shiroihana had already turned to go. She kept walking without any sign of stopping and for a moment Inuyasha tensed and tried to hop off the pavilion to follow her, but his arms and legs tingled with weakness. The monk's bite had adversely affected him. The blood loss was moderate, but there seemed to be a toxin in the parasite's saliva. Inuyasha made it halfway to his feet and then stumbled, toppling over with a bitter curse.

"Dammit," he grumbled. Shippo moved away from Miroku and Kagome to help him sit back up.

Masuyo watched Shiroihana's figure fade into the distance and let out a slow, long breath of relief. He had received a reprieve for now, but he suspected it wouldn't be long before the inuyoukai woman emerged once more to haunt his thoughts and steal him, Kasai, or one of his younger brothers away.

* * *

Walking toward the gates marking the end of the shrine, Shiroihana lifted one hand up and probed slowly underneath the mass of her white shoulder fluff. She found what she'd been searching for and clutched it, smiling slightly to herself. It was Masuyo's sling, a little reminder for herself that she had unfinished business with their family.

She tucked it back in a safe spot, a small, hidden pocket in the collar of her under robe.

Back at the palace she expected Ginrei to have arrived on a diplomatic visit to see her daughter, Hanone. She would stay to socialize with Hanone and Saya until her child was born. In Kagetsu palace the pup would be on neutral ground, a blank slate for either one of its parents to claim. Sesshomaru would wait for Shiroihana's arrival back home, but then he would vanish, heading deeper into the Western Lands to be with the mysterious, enigmatic Rin.

Shiroihana thought of Saya and then of Rin and wondered idly about her future grandchildren…

* * *

After Shiroihana had disappeared, Kasai gradually tried to push away from Koinu. While he supported her shoulders she blinked against the drizzle and shivered as she scrutinized him. Her lips parted, trying to speak but the voice that came out was hoarse and weak, making it unintelligible.

"You're okay now, Kasai," Koinu reassured her, nodding emphatically. He brushed the raindrops from her face and tried to shield her eyes. "Do you feel okay?"

She started to tremble in his hold. "How…" her voice croaked and her eyes abruptly pooled up with hot tears. She made a choking noise. "Koinu…"

"I'll take you out of the rain," Koinu told her, grinning with a forced, sugary cheerfulness. "It's too cold for you out here. Mom always says rain gives people colds."

Akisame stepped around one side of the couple and pointed in the direction that Inuyasha and Shippo had taken some time ago. "Lady Shiroihana said Miroku was this way…"

Kasai's violet gaze moved to Akisame and her lips twitched, forming a look of surprise. "Aki…?"

"Yeah," Akisame answered her, but she didn't look directly at Kasai, instead she stared at the ground where she was dragging Tetsusaiga's tip in the grass. "I'm here, Kasai."

"Hold onto me, Kasai," Koinu ordered, softly. He scooped her up and shifted her weight so that it was balanced between his arms.

As he lifted her, Kasai saw the layout of the garden, the slowing, lightening gray drizzle of the rain, the spots where grass had been scuffed up. She caught a brief sight of her torn, scorched kimono lying in the grass. As Koinu adjusted her arms over his neck and shoulders, Kasai's gaze strayed to a spot some fifty feet away. A body lied in the grass, motionless and dead.

"No!" she croaked, squirming in Koinu's hold. "Kenpo…_Kenpo…?"_

Confused, Koinu fought her, holding on. "Kasai? What are you doing? What's wrong?"

She pointed shakily with one hand and then brought it back to cover her lips. Her eyes squeezed shut and she started to sob. "Kenpo…" She twisted around and pressed her head to Koinu's shoulder. "_What happened?"_ she whispered.

The agony in her voice made Koinu's ears droop and the pressure in his chest swell uncontrollably. "I'm sorry Kasai—I don't know. I just don't know."

Akisame watched her brother and Kasai with her human blue eyes, shivering miserably. She wondered what Kasai was thinking. Did she know that she had died, that she could have stayed dead and never woken to this scene? Which fate would she have chosen at that moment?

* * *

Next time:

Kohimu: _The arrow struck Hato and Osore, piercing them both. From his faraway spot, Kohimu heard the little girl cry out with pain. Then the children fell over together as one._

Kasai: _Kasai sat up partly and shook her head. Her expression changed, twisting violently, the muscles quivering just beneath. "You don't know what I've earned. You don't know—" She cut herself off and shook her head. Her fingers made clawing motions in the air, as if she wanted to cut herself with her fingernails. Her gaze on him was loose and unfocused. "You don't know what I did and I don't even know all of it."_


	30. Kohimu's Arrow

A/N: Apparently, by word count at least, this was a short chapter. Odd. This is the last chapter I have absolutely complete. I did have a huge surplus of chapters earlier on when I was updating like every other day, but now those have run out after this one. My life will become a little more busy (or a lot perhaps) with moving back to my apartment at the end of this week and my boyfriend leaving for his college, and college beginning again. I'm a senior now. Soon I'll be out working my fingers to the bone like everyone else. Sigh. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter, and as usual thank you to everyone that reviewed last chapter! I appreciated and I'll probably go back after posting this (despite the insane hour) and answer some of you that had questions. Toodles!

Disclaimer: I do not own them, just the kids.

Last Chapter: Shiroihana killed Kasai, extracted the parasite, and resurrected her. Inuyasha and Shippo found Masuyo, Miroku, and Kagome. Koinu and Akisame greeted Kasai when she came awake again. Shiroihana vanished without collecting her fee from Miroku's family for now, but she promised to come back. Just as Koinu was going to take Kasai out of the rain Kasai spotted a familiar, but dead monk: Kenpo. Living is only half the battle, after all.

* * *

**Kohimu's Arrow**

Sounds carried over the stairway, screams and shouts. Kohimu quickened his pace with growing desperation. One of the voices might've been Kasai's, though the cries were so distant that it could've been a child or any young woman making the sounds. On his back Hato was growing weaker. Her tiny fingers loosened their hold in the slickness of the rain and at last gravity had its way with her. The little girl tumbled from Kohimu's shoulders, slamming into the hard crab-grass alongside the stairway leading to the shrine and temple above.

Kohimu stopped and his hands curled into fists. "No—I don't have time for this…"

He looked back and saw Osore shivering. "What happened to her?" Osore asked, whimpering.

Kohimu fought the desire to abandon them. They were weights, slowing him. His goal lied over the hill and he was certain he could hear the sounds of a skirmish—or was that the clash of the sea over the cliffs? Hato's chest rose and fell erratically, as if the little girl were struggling to breathe. _Kasai could already be gone forever,_ he thought and bit his tongue, trying to still the rise of pain at such an admission, _but these kids are alive and they need me now, right here._

He knelt and wiped gently at the girl's face. He pinched her bony shoulder and called out to her. "Hey! Hey little girl!" Frustrated, he turned toward Osore. "What was her name again?"

Osore stammered, "H-H-Hato, sir."

"Hato!" Kohimu shouted into her face. The girl shuddered lightly against him but her body stayed limp. Kohimu lifted her eyelids. The pupils had constricted tightly, as if she were walking through bright sunlight. _Odd…_ Her pupils should've been wide and dilated.

"What the hell is happening to her?" Kohimu demanded.

Osore whimpered behind him. "I don't know…"

"When you fell earlier," Kohimu turned and watched the boy carefully. "She said you were going to be possessed. She said she'd seen it happen before to…others…"

Osore shuffled his feet and sniffled pathetically. His knees shook and he dropped to the ground, wrapping his small, frail arms around himself. "I—I'm c-cold and h-hungry…"

"I know, I'm sorry," Kohimu muttered, sighing. "If she doesn't wake up soon I'll build you a fire but I need to get to that shrine and help the others." He twitched his shoulders and removed his quiver of arrows, a mixture of long and short for use on different sized demons, or for hunting game. His bow followed the quiver of arrows as Kohimu set them aside in favor of grabbing the girl up closer to him. He listened for her breath as he had for Osore earlier.

Thirty seconds passed and Kohimu pulled away, blinking with shock. _She's not breathing. _

"Hato!" he yelled. He slapped her, hoping the jolt of pain would make her come alive again. He watched her chest and searched her face for any sign of a response to his action or to the rain. None came for several achingly long seconds and then Hato's face colored red where he'd slapped her and her facial muscles flickered as the raindrops splattered down onto her face.

"Hato!" he called, leaning down to listen to her breath again. This time he heard it come in little puffs, growing stronger. _It was just what had happened to the boy._ A small thrill of alarm moved through Kohimu. He stayed hunkered over Hato's body while he moved his eyes, trying to watch Osore without being seen. He caught the boy making a hard, angry face and his alarm intensified. _What do I do? Are they really possessed? _

Unknown to Kohimu, Osore was listening through the rain, hearing on a deep level, picking up vibrations and subsonic sounds through his human feet that were interpreted by the youkai parasite inside him. A signal came through the ground, a death song. _Kokushi is dead. Kisei is dying…_

He jerked his head over to stare at Kohimu and leaped at him.

Kohimu scrambled, pushing the girl's body away from himself and fumbling at his waist for the short sword that he kept there. He was not good with a sword at all, his weapon of choice had always been the bow and arrow, but by instinct he knew he didn't have enough time to reach for an arrow from his quiver and lift it to use it as a short spear. The boy would be on him before he could. In drawing the sword his arms were raised in a defensive position so that even though he hadn't lifted the sword much, Osore still hit his arms.

They both fell backward onto the slope. Kohimu scrabbled for a handhold or a foothold. Osore tumbled away from him but came to a stop more quickly than Kohimu did. Osore was barefoot, a distinct advantage in the rain.

The sword slipped from Kohimu's fist. He fumbled for it but gravity and the slipperiness of the rain took the sword away, sliding downhill.

Osore hit him then. The force of the impact rolled Kohimu over onto his back. He felt his body sliding over the wet dune and crab grass, felt the rocks, mud, and sand trying to cut through his black bodysuit and his robes. Then those sensations were overwhelmed with horror as he saw Osore duck down and felt the boy's teeth cut into the skin at the nape of his neck.

Kohimu screamed. He fought, his torso bucking, his legs kicking, and his arms pounding, pummeling the boy. A burning sensation raced through his neck, arching up into his brain and into his chest. Kohimu gasped, struggling suddenly to breathe. Faintly he felt the sticky, hot wetness of his blood oozing out from where Osore had bitten him, rolling down his chest.

Just as tremors of weakness started to shoot through his limbs, Kohimu got lucky. His fist smashed into Osore's temple. The fragile human child's bones splintered. The boy pulled back, screaming. Kohimu's blood spattered out of his mouth, splashing across Kohimu's face in a sick spray.

In spite of his horror and his weakness, Kohimu knew a chance at life when he saw one. The demon slayer punched the boy in the stomach and twisted, knocking Osore off him.

Osore recovered with amazing swiftness and sprinted up the hill on all-fours, racing toward where Hato was still lying motionless. Kohimu pushed himself up and stared after the boy, panting. The drops of crimson that rained from his neck and shoulder briefly distracted him. Kohimu caught a few of them and rubbed them between his fingers, smearing them.

When he looked up again Osore had Hato in his arms. Osore flung her limp body over his shoulder and began stumbling away from the shrine stairway as fast as his small legs could carry him.

Kohimu, breathing raggedly, hauled himself up the slippery slope. He envisioned his bow and the quiver of arrows and forced his eyes to stay pinned to those weapons, not catching the steady drip-drop of his wound. He reached the bow and picked it up. The familiar weight eased his tension and his brain partly switched off as he reached down to the quiver. His vision blurred. The feathered shafts of the arrows were all alike to him suddenly and Kohimu took hold of the first one that touched his fingers. He dropped to one knee and notched the arrow tip, lining it up with one finger.

He stared along the sights, aiming. Osore was at least a hundred feet away. The wind was blowing in from the sea, Kohimu tried to calculate for it, to compensate as he aimed, but his mind was cloudy and unfocused. The boy and the girl Hato melded together. _I must hit Osore in the arm or the shoulder and force him to drop Hato. Then I must hit his leg to keep him from running again…_

The bowstring thrummed, vibrating. The arrow whizzed away, curling through the wind, splitting the raindrops. Kohimu ducked and snatched a second arrow, notching it before the first had found its mark. He lined it up and squinted, trying to see the other arrow…

His arrow found its target, but not where he had wanted it to. In his haze, Kohimu had grabbed up a long arrow too, one designed for slaying huge demons. It was far too big for safely bringing down renegade humans.

The arrow struck Hato and Osore, piercing them both. From his faraway spot, Kohimu heard the little girl cry out with pain. Then the children fell over together as one.

Kohimu dropped his second arrow and stumbled forward, barely catching himself with one palm. His shoulders heaved as he breathed. Pain swam up and down his spine, the world fuzzed in an out. Gnashing his teeth, Kohimu gripped his bleeding wound, crunching it and holding his breath through the pain. After a moment he pulled at the sash around his waist, letting his robes fall open to expose the black bodysuit underneath. He wrapped it around his shoulder, binding it and forming a makeshift sling.

Shakily, Kohimu grabbed up his bow and arrows and stumbled down the hill until he reached the children's bodies. Osore was dead, he knew this the moment the boy's body came within view. The ground and the grass were darkened with his blood. Kohimu's long arrow had cut through the boy's shoulder at just the wrong spot, severing a vital artery there.

Pinned with Osore, sickly skewered and lying on top of him, Kohimu saw that Hato had been punctured through the back. The little girl was pale as a ghost and breathing rapidly, crying in shock.

Kohimu fell to his knees a few feet from her and averted his eyes. He cursed under his breath. His sloppy aim had all but killed them both. Kohimu now had two choices. He could end the girl's life with a second arrow or he could try and separate her from Osore and run her back to the village where they had left Tisoki, Nobe, and Sango.

"Kohimu," the little girl screamed, crying. "Help me! Kohimu!"

He hated her silently for having learned his name. If she was possessed like Osore had been she could be acting just as Osore had. Kohimu would only free her and help her to find her eating him the moment he turned his head.

Her pale hands pulled on the grass, her high voice squealed with fear and pain. "Kohimu!"

Frowning bitterly, Kohimu pulled one of his small arrows from the quiver and scuffed at the dirt, pulling up a few grass clumps before he began dragging his arrow in the dirt. He sketched a few rough characters: his name, and then a symbol for village. As an afterthought he scratched the symbol for girl as well. When he had finished he pulled on his bow and the quiver of arrows over his good arm and stepped forward to help Hato.

He kept the girl still while he pried the arrowhead off and pulled the shaft from Osore's body, freeing Hato from him. She was still skewered by the shaft and she tried to pull on it but Kohimu stopped her. "Don't, if you do that you'll bleed out." Her wound, the entry and the exit, were small, neat and barely bleeding. Inside she would be bleeding, and she was likely to go into shock with the rain.

Kohimu carefully broke the shaft, shortening it but leaving it inside the girl. Hato stared at him while he worked, her body quivering, the muscles set hard as steel. Her brown eyes were large and dilated. Kohimu shed his sash-less robe and wrapped it around her, hoping to keep her warm. It was stained heavily at the top with his blood but the girl didn't seem to notice. Whether that was because she was in shock or she was a parasite that craved human blood, Kohimu couldn't say and he didn't have the energy to consider it.

Grunting, Kohimu picked her up in his arms and started off, jogging unsteadily. His own wounds throbbed and his body was shaking and cold but Kohimu pressed on, pushing his own weakness aside. If they could not save Kasai than at least he would save Hato, who seemed to know something of what had happened to his sister.

* * *

They buried the monk Kenpo in the light rain that lingered on into the night. Shippo, Koinu, and Akisame did most of the work as Miroku and Kagome were still unconscious, Kasai and Masuyo were weak, and Inuyasha had not yet regained his demonic powers. The sun was setting somewhere behind the clouds, but the usual beauty and light of the sunset was obscured by the storm clouds.

Kasai picked the spot for his burial. Beside a certain garden that she knew he had often worked in before they had become Master Dani's personal prisoners and his children. Kasai insisted on sitting out and watching Koinu, Shippo, and Akisame work. Inuyasha gave her his haori, which was the driest piece of clothing they had because Inuyasha had been sitting out of the rain the longest. She took it and thanked him like a zombie, much in the same way that Masuyo had worked earlier.

She cried when they buried Kenpo, but she had no energy for hysterics. Koinu and the others watched her, partly out of suspicion, partly in wonderment. Kasai had never cried so openly before. Had the circumstances not been extraordinary Koinu would've started asking whether or not she really was Kasai again. When Koinu offered to carry her Kasai accepted and held onto him with a strange neediness, an intensity that Koinu had never known of her before.

They spent the night in the chilled summer air, underneath the relative shelter of the pavilion, a place that had once elicited horror every morning under Master Dani's watch. Kasai didn't want to stay at the temple another second but when the decision was made around her she didn't fight it. Shippo, Masuyo, Koinu, and Akisame gathered bedding from inside the large complexes that had housed the monks and priestesses before. While they were out searching Inuyasha and Kasai were alone. Inuyasha eventually asked her the question all of them had been dreading.

"Kasai—do you remember doing this?" He gestured at the unconscious Miroku and Kagome behind him.

Kasai was still wearing his haori over her head. The shelter of it, the thick fabric, acted like a security blanket. Kasai turned her head a little, letting the red haori hide her face from him. "No, I can't remember anything after the parasite took over."

Inuyasha grunted and then fell silent; twisting around to check on Kagome and Miroku for a moment, peeling back their eyelids to see if that would wake them. When it didn't he groaned and turned back to the darkening world beyond the pavilion. "I'm really starting to worry about Kohimu," he muttered.

Kasai turned at her brother's name, alarmed. "Kohimu's here?"

"We left him outside with these two kids and a priestess that we first saw running down the hillside. When one of the kids fell over I told Kohimu to stay behind and look after all of them while we went on ahead for you." Inuyasha scowled, troubled. "He should've been here by now."

"Oh no," Kasai whispered. She started to shiver. A shout from Masuyo made her flinch and stare in that direction, chewing frantically on her lip. "Two kids?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself to try and still her shaking.

"Yeah, why?" Inuyasha was staring at her critically, searching for an answer in her posture, her expression, or in her vocal tone.

"A boy and a girl? Osore and Hato?"

Inuyasha shrugged but his frown was deepening. "I can't remember exactly but I think the boy was named Osore."

Kasai drew in a quick, jagged breath. "Those two were possessed too." Her voice grew shriller with fear. "You have to send someone to get Kohimu, to warn him…"

Inuyasha cursed, "Dammit, this just keeps getting better and better." He looked back out at the sky, glowering. "I'm the fastest. As soon as my powers are back I'll go, Kasai."

"Yes," Kasai murmured. She lowered herself onto the cold wooden floor, wrapping the haori around her as best as she could. She closed her eyes and tried to escape back into the dream world that had kept her mind busy while the parasite controlled her body. It was distant and filled with snapshots of the other Chosen, bathing; sitting on the pavilion beside her while they ate, dying inside as they drank the cannibal soup. She wondered at Miroku and Kagome and at poor Kenpo, what had happened to them? And she worried for Kohimu as well, that her oldest brother wouldn't see what Hato and Osore were until it was too late.

* * *

After the sun had set and Inuyasha had vanished, reinvigorated by his demonic powers, the others bedded down quickly. Shippo took up a spot sharing a mat with Kagome, as if traveling back in time to the days when he'd been little more than a baby. Masuyo slept beside Miroku under the same blanket, sharing his body heat with his unconscious father. Akisame and Koinu started off sharing bedding, but then the siblings split. Akisame made a threesome sharing blankets with Shippo and Kagome. Koinu moved to comfort and watch over Kasai.

Kasai had fallen asleep with Inuyasha's haori and the hanyou hadn't bothered the girl to retrieve it before he took off. Koinu laid out the sleeping mat and the blankets and very gently tried to lift Kasai off the cold, hard wooden pavilion floor. She woke instantaneously and cried out in a small but terrified voice. Her hand shot out, curled into a little fist.

Koinu caught her wrist before it impacted him and the girl withdrew, gasping as she realized where she was and that there was no danger. She breathed hard; her violet eyes were dark in the gloom. "Koinu?" she whispered.

The pup nodded. "It's just me."

Kasai searched the pavilion quickly, counting the bodies. "Inuyasha left? Kohimu hasn't shown up yet?"

"No," Koinu answered. "Not yet. But Kohimu's strong, I'm sure wherever he is, he's fine."

Kasai's lips began to tremble and she blinked rapidly, fighting tears. Koinu stared at her, startled by her reaction. He leaned forward, trying to get her to look at him. When their gazes met he smiled encouragingly and crossed his eyes, trying to force a smile out of her. She gave a choked laugh and lifted a sad, twitching smile up to him. "Thank you."

Koinu nodded scooted backward, patting the sleeping mat. "This is for you."

"Thank you," Kasai murmured. She crawled forward and lied down, curling into a fetal position, as if trying to shrink and disappear.

"I have something else for you too," Koinu told her, quietly.

Kasai moved her head and stared at him. Her gaze was crinkled at the edges, marred by the continuous, haunting presence of her memories. "What is it?"

Slowly, Koinu reached for his waist and tugged at a few straps there, releasing Burikko. After Koinu had brought Kasai back to the pavilion he'd returned to the spot where he'd dropped it after Shiroihana resurrected Kasai. Now he relinquished it to its proper owner with meticulous slowness and a reverent stare. He placed it lengthwise at her side with the hilt a few inches from her nose. "I thought you'd like to have that back."

Kasai's eyes moved from the sword to Koinu. "Tell me what happened, Koinu. The last thing I remember…" She stopped and brought one slender hand up to cover her face, hiding from him.

Koinu's ears fell flat, his face contorted with grief. "Kasai—don't worry about it. You weren't yourself but it's over now. You're safe."

Suddenly, in a clumsy motion, Kasai's hand shot out, pushing Burikko away. "Take it back, Koinu."

"No," Koinu laid his clawed hand over the blade and applied pressure, stopping it. "This sword is _yours_ Kasai. You've earned it."

Kasai sat up partly and shook her head. Her expression changed, twisting violently, the muscles quivering just beneath. "You don't know what I've earned. You don't know—" She cut herself off and shook her head. Her fingers made clawing motions in the air, as if she wanted to cut herself with her fingernails. Her gaze on him was loose and unfocused. "You don't know what I did and I don't even know all of it."

"Kasai…" Koinu whispered, watching her with darkening, saddened blue eyes.

"I should've listened to Kenpo," Kasai cried, shaking. "I was such a coward!" She gazed at Koinu, curling her lips with self-hatred as she spoke.

Koinu cringed away from her vehemence, the fervor with which she spoke. He could pick out her hatred and knew instantly that it was directed inward, a built up frustration from her suffering in the shrine and temple. He wanted to ask who Kenpo was, what had happened, but he didn't dare to do it with the way her body shook, with the tears streaming from her eyes. She was mourning him, mourning whatever had happened to her and Koinu knew—and regretted—that he could not ease it.

But he would give it his all by trying.

"You're not a coward," Koinu whispered, his voice croaking. "Kasai, I never thanked you that night that Iruka tried to kill me," his voice faltered, wavering with his emotion, "I called you names, I was so cruel. I never got a chance to tell you that you saved my life. Without you I wouldn't be here now."

He clasped Burikko and lifted it between them, pushing it at her, but Kasai turned her head away. Koinu watched her shoulders quaking, moving up and down as she sobbed. His ears disappeared, pressing tightly to his hair as he pulled the sword back, moving it to the foot of the sleeping mat. He scooted forward and wrapped his arms around Kasai's shoulders and her waist. He pressed his nose to her hair and squeezed her. "Please, Kasai. Don't cry. Whatever happened, it's over now and you're surrounded by people who love you and protect you. No matter what you say, you deserve it, I know you do."

Kasai made no answer but her crying increased, her shoulders moved against him. Her hand moved up and closed over one of Koinu's arms, squeezing.

* * *

Late at night, when the clouds had cleared and the crescent moon had appeared high in the sky, Inuyasha returned. He spotted the three groups of sleepers. Kagome, Shippo, and Akisame, then Miroku and Masuyo and finally Koinu and Kasai, curled up beside each other. As the hanyou climbed the stairs of the pavilion one of the sleepers stirred. It was Miroku. The monk sat up partially and watched Inuyasha through heavy lidded eyes. "Inuyasha…?"

"Yeah?" the hanyou grunted, moving over the pavilion. His feet whispered over the wood.

Miroku cautiously rubbed at his head and gazed around at the others. "What happened?" His face warped with concern and he sat up more alertly, searching. "Where's Kasai? Is she all right? Inuyasha, she's not herself she—"

"She attacked you," Inuyasha finished for him. "Quiet down, Miroku, you'll wake her up. She's fine. She's sleeping next to Koinu."

"What was wrong? What happened?" Miroku demanded. As he started to move Masuyo moaned at his side and Miroku stopped, taken aback as he realized he wasn't sleeping alone.

"She was possessed or some shit," Inuyasha growled. He sat down with his back facing the monk. "She's better now." He decided not to go into the details of exactly how.

"Did you see a demon woman, Inuyasha? Sesshomaru's mother, Lady—"

"Yeah, she said something about you having a debt that she would collect later." Inuyasha pulled on Tetsusaiga at his waist, untying the sword and laying it in his lap. It was the position he took on when he was on guard duty. He could doze lightly and save time if the sword and sheath were right there in case some enemy snuck up on him and the others while he had his eyes closed.

"Oh," Miroku said, sighing. He fell back slowly onto his sleeping mat and closed his eyes with a mixture of pain, exhaustion, and relief. "So everything is all right then?"

Inuyasha smirked, thinking that the very adult monk sounded like a child asking for reassurance. He put himself in Miroku's place and concluded it wasn't unreasonable. Miroku's last knowledge had been that his daughter was crazy and attacking him. He wouldn't have known whether she would kill him or not when he slipped unconscious. Inuyasha imagined Akisame stealing the Tetsusaiga and wielding it against him—if he were to survive such an attack, how would he feel? To be nearly killed by his own daughter, his only daughter…

"Well Kohimu took off. He was traveling with us but I left him with some kids we met outside the temple here. Something happened there—Kasai thought they were possessed too. Kohimu must've had to kill one of them cuz I found the kid's body. Kohimu left a note saying he was taking the girl back to the village where we left Sango and Tisoki."

It was a lot of information for the monk to absorb all at once. "What? Is he okay? And Sango! She was pregnant? Is she all right?"

Inuyasha pursed his lips and then sugar coated the news. "Yeah, I just convinced her and Tisoki to stay behind. She was…doing okay." He stopped and cleared his throat with embarrassment, hoping that Miroku believed his little white lie. "Go to sleep, we're going to go get her and catch up with Kohimu as soon as it's dawn."

Miroku made no answer for some time, though Inuyasha knew by the pattern of his breathing that he hadn't gone back to sleep. Eventually he separated himself from Masuyo and moved unsteadily across the pavilion, moving to stand over where Koinu and Kasai were sleeping. Inuyasha resisted the urge to twist his head around to watch, but in the silence that followed he gave in. He saw Miroku kneel and hesitantly touch Kasai's shoulder, waking the girl.

Koinu scuttled back from Kasai. Although Inuyasha's eyes couldn't make out the color in the moonlight, he was certain that his son was blushing as red as a ripe, mashed beets. The hanyou smirked to himself and turned his head as Miroku and Kasai embraced.

Koinu looked on, smiling at the father and daughter, but his ears flattened when he heard Kasai start to cry. Her body shook in Miroku's arms.

"I attacked you, didn't I?" Kasai sobbed.

"Hush," Miroku told her, squeezing her tight in his hug. "It wasn't you."

Shyly, Koinu moved away from them and sat beside his father. "What did you find, Father?"

Inuyasha frowned. "Not much. Kohimu used an arrow to write in the dirt. I think he took one of the possessed kids—the girl—back to the village or something." The hanyou glanced back at Miroku and Kasai and then lowered his voice into a thick whisper. "There was blood from Kohimu there too."

"Blood?" Koinu repeated. His ears, like his father's, flattened with the disturbing news.

"Yeah." Inuyasha nodded darkly. "I would assume the worst but Kohimu wrote his name in the sand and I'm betting the kid wouldn't have gone to that trouble trying to cover its tracks."

"So he's still alive?"

"Feh," Inuyasha grunted and growled. His hands curled into fists over Tetsusaiga in his lap. "I shouldn't have made him sit with those kids. But they were just _fucking kids…"_

"This place was evil," Koinu observed, shuddering. "Whatever happened to Kasai, she's—she's…"

"She'll get better," Inuyasha muttered. "It just takes time."

Koinu lowered his head sadly. His ears drooped. "I hope you're right, Father."

A high pitched groan made them turn their heads. Between Shippo and Akisame, Kagome had opened her eyes. She rubbed her head and then made a face and moaned, "Ow, my stomach…"

Inuyasha blew out a long breath of relief. "Good, now everyone's up." He turned and glanced at the sky, at the progress of the moon in its traditional background of black velvet. He harrumphed and surveyed the group, noting that Koinu had gotten up to help Kagome and make sure she was okay. _Time to start moving again…_

* * *

Next time

Kohimu: _"Hold on," Kohimu panted. His own face was a twist of agony and bitterness. He pressed on, stumbling as he climbed up a hill. The steep angle and the slipperiness of the slope forced Kohimu to use his bad arm, stressing the injured shoulder. He felt little pain from the wound, but when he paused, gasping for air and doubled over, alarm rushed through him. His shoulder was dripping slowly but steadily. His blood pattered into the grass, dark and slimy in the starlight._

Kasai: _"I died, didn't I?" Kasai asked, her voice and her body trembling. _


	31. Two Deaths

A/N: So I had a bit of a delay. I apologize! Lo siento! Muy malo. (kudos if you recognize me practicing my Spanish) I had to move into my apartment, fight with my boyfriend so that we nearly broke up, then I went to visit him last weekend, write articles for my Suite101 page, and this next weekend I'll be going to an Inter Varsity Christian retreat thing. Camping. Uh, muy nervioso. But hopefully this makes up a little for my tardiness.

Disclaimer: I do not own them

Last Chapter: Kohimu was attacked by Osore. Osore ran off with Hato, but Kohimu shot them both with one arrow. He found that he'd killed Osore, but Hato was still alive. Kohimu left a message for IY and the others and left for the village where they left Sango, Tisoki, and Nobe. Inuyasha and the group stayed at the shrine/temple pavilion and buried Kenpo. Kasai cried when Koinu tried to return Burikko to her. Miroku and Kagome awoke and Miroku hugged Kasai for real this time.

* * *

**Two Deaths**

Kohimu ran through the night. His body flushed numb and cold, his chest ached. The bodysuit kept out most of the rain, but his hands, feet, and his head were drenched and colored a deadly pale white. He kept Hato pressed to his chest and as time passed her shaking increased. Her small fingers gripped his uninjured shoulder with a desperate, shaking hold.

"Don't fall asleep," Kohimu warned her, panting.

"Yes," she answered in a tiny, quivering voice.

Over and over again Kohimu wondered if he was saving the parasite rather than the girl. But Hato made no sign of attacking him, and she appeared to have no interest in the blood on his stained robe where it was wrapped around her. She simply shuddered against his chest and occasionally cried into the slick surface of his bodysuit. Was she mourning, acting, or just in pain? Kohimu didn't have the breath to ask her.

He stumbled down rain-slicked hillsides, grabbing hold of mossy tree branches and stubbing his toes on cold rocks as he worked not to fall. As the rain let up and the clouds dissipated, Kohimu saw the luminescent white glow of the moon behind the retreating clouds. The raindrops gleamed under the moon and starlight, twinkling.

When Hato's shivering started to weaken, Kohimu shouted at her. "Stay awake, Hato! Hato! Can you hear me?" He jostled her in his good arm and the girl whimpered. Her quivering began with renewed energy and she began to sob weakly.

"Hold on," Kohimu panted. His own face was a twist of agony and bitterness. He pressed on, stumbling as he climbed up a hill. The steep angle and the slipperiness of the slope forced Kohimu to use his bad arm, stressing the injured shoulder. He felt little pain from the wound, but when he paused, gasping for air and doubled over, alarm rushed through him. His shoulder was dripping slowly but steadily. His blood pattered into the grass, dark and slimy in the starlight.

He pressed on with more urgency, aware that the journey would soon claim his life as well as Hato's unless they reached the village soon.

At last the endless hills faded and Kohimu jogged over flatter land. He smelled the smoke of cooking fires long before he saw them. The scent powered his desperation and he picked up his speed. Hato had gone still against his chest but Kohimu didn't have the brainpower or the breath now to try and jolt her out of death.

He reached the village and stumbled into the light of the first fire. A few old men shouted in alarm and tried to bar his path. Kohimu stumbled and fell to his knees before them, panting. He searched for the air and the words he needed to get help from the men before him. Fortunately the men caught sight of the dark bloom of wetness that gleamed on his shoulder in the orange light of the fire.

"You're bleeding!"

Kohimu looked up at them, his mouth ajar as he sucked heavily on the air. Their words washed over him, meaningless.

"Look at that—he's gone dumb!"

"What's that in his arms? Do you see that little foot? It's a child!"

"Were you attacked, young man?"

"He has the clothes of a demon slayer!"

Dazed and mute, Kohimu followed the men as they led him further into the village. The heat thrown by the fires brought back a sensation of pain in Kohimu, slowing his progress. Finally shadows came racing through the darkness, cutting in and out of the orange light and the blackness. Kohimu found himself staring into two faces he recognized: Tisoki and Nobe. He blinked and shook his head, trying to focus his thoughts and gather whatever wits the small amount of blood he had left would allow.

"Kohimu!" Tisoki shouted at him, his expression tense with alarm. "What happened to you?"

Nobe pulled on his arm, "Come to the healer's tent…"

Kohimu stepped back from the other boy and jerked out of Nobe's grasp. "The girl," he breathed, "take her."

Nobe nodded and accepted the bundle with wide, wet eyes. Hato was limp and floppy, her eyes closed. Nobe stared down at her for a moment, dumbstruck.

"Go!" Kohimu yelled, frowning angrily.

Nobe turned and rushed off, disappearing.

Tisoki forced his way under Kohimu's good arm and propped his older brother up. Kohimu tensed for a moment but then accepted the aid. His body sagged and the pain raced through him, fresh and hot. He gnashed his teeth and fought to catch Tisoki's questions through it.

"What happened to you, Big Brother? Where are Inuyasha and the others?"

Kohimu offered him an answer that made no sense at all: "I shot the girl."

Tisoki blinked, withholding a gasp of alarm. _What is he saying?_ "You need to go to the healer's tent too, Brother…"

Kohimu's hand moved up and grabbed Tisoki by the collar, pulling with a weak, but still surprising strength. He glared at his brother, meeting his eyes clearly. "Watch the girl. She's dangerous."

"Brother…?" Tisoki asked, his voice had started to tremble.

Kohimu's eyes rolled suddenly, showing the whites. His body tensed and quivered.

"Kohimu! Brother! _Brother!"_

Tisoki grappled with his brother's twitching body, trying to hold the entirety of his heavy, muscular frame as Kohimu collapsed into the mud and grass. As Tisoki finally lost the short struggle, he cried out with alarm as he realized that his hands and arms were covered with a thin, wet layer of Kohimu's blood. "Kohimu!"

* * *

The fresh day dawned dark, partly cloudy. The morning light glowed a bizarre blue on the clouds as they set out. Inuyasha carried Kagome on his back after exchanging her bloodied top for his red haori, a familiar part of travel. Also normal were Akisame and Shippo out ahead of the group, scouting. Miroku walked beside Masuyo, father and son using one another as crutches, both of them taking strength from his golden staff. As it jangled it set the gentle pace of their travel.

What was unusual now was that Koinu carried Kasai on his back the same way that Inuyasha carted Kagome about. The young demon slayer girl stayed slumped on his back, her eyes closed but her nose buried in his white hair.

Miroku watched them periodically, staring over the top of Masuyo's head. His expression fluctuated, changing from uncertainty, worry, or a softer emotion close to peace. Ever since he had caught the fourteen year old Kasai kissing Koinu he'd feared that his daughter and Inuyasha's son, having grown up together, would too easily slip into a dangerous sexual relationship. He'd tried to separate them, to avoid it, and discovered that Kasai had inherited his infamous lechery. As much as he'd hated to admit it, he knew and probably had always known that Kasai had been the kisser that day. Being a scam artist Miroku was accustomed to seeing deception everywhere; to expect it to make sure he could be in control of it. He thought perhaps Koinu hid a lechery of his own, but he had to admit that at times people were truthful to the core, innocent and pure. Koinu was one of these and if Koinu loved Kasai, or vice versa, there was no better solution to his daughter's lechery.

Songbirds lifted their voices cheerily as the day wore on into the morning hours. The sun grew brighter. The group passed by the spot where Osore's blood stained the path. There was no sign of the boy's body, though Koinu spotted a suspicious lump of dirt alongside the road. He looked up to his father in the distance. _Father buried him last night. _Koinu stared down as they passed over it, his body stiffened; wondering at what had happened and whether or not Kohimu was alive. Kasai didn't move on his back and Koinu hoped that she had stayed seemingly asleep.

Time dragged on. The endless rows of steep hills and long descents stretched out before them. As the forest thickened around and over them, Koinu lost sight of Akisame and Shippo ahead. It troubled him but he focused on the weight on his back, on Kasai. Normally he was up with Akisame, watching over her, keeping her safe. Shippo tended to move on his own, like a bloodhound, scents or sounds often distracted him and the kit would scamper off.

Koinu's worries vanished, becoming embarrassment, when he caught Miroku looking at him.

Koinu turned and grinned sheepishly at the monk, his face burned. He laughed nervously and asked, "How's your head, Uncle Miroku?"

The gentle, amused expression on the monk's face surprised him. "It's much better, thank you for asking, Koinu." Miroku smiled genuinely and dipped his head slightly. "It's good to see you."

"And great to see you too!" Koinu replied cheerily, still giving out his bright, sugary smile. His face continued to burn and Kasai's weight on his back doubled. He prayed she was sleeping.

"I'm thirsty," Masuyo mumbled.

A groggy, dull voice answered Masuyo from Koinu's back, making the pup tense as he realized Kasai _was_ awake. She said, "I am too, Little Brother."

"I'll see if Father will stop," Koinu offered immediately. He picked up his pace, working not to jar Kasai on his back, and fell in alongside his father. "Hey Dad…"

Inuyasha jerked his head around and glared at Koinu. "What?"

"Father," Koinu corrected himself, sighing with defeat. "Is there any water nearby? Kasai and Masuyo are thirsty."

On Inuyasha's back Kagome opened her eyes and smiled at Koinu. "You look just like your father right now," she remarked in a quiet, tired voice.

"No he doesn't," Inuyasha harrumphed. "He has your face, not mine."

Koinu growled, losing his patience. "Are we going to stop or not?"

"Yeah," Inuyasha grunted. "There's water up ahead. I'll catch up with Shippo and Akisame and tell them we're taking a rest."

When they stopped the group moved slowly with fatigue. The long battle and journey of the day before had worn all of them down. While Inuyasha disappeared to search for Shippo and Akisame, Koinu took the water canteen that his mother carried and ran back and forth between their resting spot at the side of the road and the small stream in the valley a short distance away. By the time he had brought water and shared it for each of them a full hour had passed and he was covered with sweat from the humid heat of the increasingly warm day. He collapsed beneath the shade of a maple and drank what was left of the water.

Miroku, Masuyo, and Kasai sat together. Masuyo wrapped his arms around his sister and started to tell her of Lady Shiroihana while Kagome and Miroku listened nearby. Koinu eavesdropped as well. As he understood what they were saying his blue eyes widened with alarm though he continued to stare straight ahead at the trees with their innocent leaves rustling in the sweet breeze. Masuyo began explaining that he wanted to volunteer to go as Shiroihana's hostage because he was the right age and the least useful.

Miroku disagreed at once. "None of my children are useless, least of all you Masuyo."

"But I'm the one she wants. I could see it when she talked…"

Kasai pulled her little brother closer, resting her chin on top of his head. "Masuyo," she cried in a whimpering voice. "I'm so sorry," she looked at her father and her voice cracked, "You did all of this for me, I'm so sorry…"

Koinu scowled and his ears laid flat. The sound and tone of Kasai's words said: _You did all this for me and it was a waste. I don't deserve it._ He picked out the self-loathing in her voice and again wondered at it. _Why?_ He recalled Kenpo the dead monk, the way Kasai as her parasite self had screamed and cried, calling him Brother. He turned his head and watched Kasai openly, frowning in confusion and worry.

Kasai had spent so much of her time being brave and brash, a little like Akisame. She covered her heart with many layers, but now it was clear and sewn onto her sleeve as the cliché went. She had lost her strength to the parasite, it had stripped her bare. Seeing her exposed stunned and wounded Koinu, it was like looking at a raw wound every time she burst into tears. He had told Shippo in their search that Kasai never cried. Now she was proving him wrong every few minutes.

When Inuyasha returned with Akisame and Shippo their break was over. Akisame and Shippo had already had a drink while they scouted ahead. Inuyasha ordered them to stay within sight distance and then he restarted their journey by kneeling and ushering Kagome onto his back. Masuyo and Miroku leaned on one another and moved back onto the road without incident.

Koinu emerged last from the shade of his tree. He shrugged his shoulders, trying to air-dry himself of the sweat that had accumulated while he was running back and forth for water. As he knelt down to help Kasai onto his back, the demon slayer shook her head and feebly pushed him away.

"I've already been so much of a burden to everyone," she murmured. She stared down at the grass near his bare foot and pawed at the latest of her tears. "I can walk Koinu. Thank you."

Frowning, Koinu grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, laying her hand over the back of his shoulder. "Come on; don't think of it like that. I'm like my dad, I like being a packhorse sometimes. Keeps my legs strong, Kasai."

She stared at him through her violet eyes, pooled with unshed tears. Her expression baffled Koinu, it was unreadable. Partly grief-stricken, but also filled with a softer, warmer stare. "When we were little you used to be so jealous of me, Koinu," she said, smiling sadly. "Because I got to go out and hunt demons before Inuyasha would let you go." She shook her head, "I knew you were jealous but you were always so nice to me…"

"Where did you get that idea?" Koinu asked, laughing. "I was mean to you—I pulled your hair, I bit you once, I yelled at you…"

Kasai laughed, an odd thing to do as she was crying. The laughter wrinkled her eyes and forced out a few more drops. "No you didn't." Her smile vanished then and the hand on his shoulder closed into a fist, tugging a little. "Koinu, there's so much I can't remember from the end. I hurt your mother and my dad and even Masuyo, didn't I? It was me, wasn't it? And…" her breath hissed sickeningly in her throat, "Those marks on Inuyasha's throat—I did that too didn't I?"

"No." Koinu turned around, taking her hand off his shoulder and moving closer to her. "You didn't do that, Kasai."

Kasai's face creased with a deep frown, her eyes stared past him into the forest beyond. Her lips trembled as she spoke. "Don't be nice to me, Koinu. Tell me the _truth._ Tell me all of it. _Don't be nice to me!"_

Koinu pulled back from her, flinching. "Kasai—you didn't bite my dad. The rest of it I don't know, I guess you attacked the others but…"

"And you, I attacked you too. And this…" Kasai reached down and touched the jagged, torn spots in her black body suit. She snatched Koinu's hand and stretched her arms and his out behind her and ran his fingertips over the hole in her bodysuit in the back. Koinu stared into her violet eyes with his own widening with the remembered horror of the event. It was the scar left from when Lady Shiroihana had cut her back open and removed the parasite. His fingertips found a ridge of scar tissue and Koinu pulled back, repulsed.

"Kasai…" he whispered, his ears drooping.

"I didn't have that before, Koinu. _Tell me the truth!_ What happened?"

Koinu avoided her searching, probing gaze and winced at the smell of her salty tears. "You shouldn't cry, you're dehydrated. We need to go—the others are getting ahead of us…"

"I died, didn't I?" Kasai asked, her voice and her body trembling.

Koinu lowered his head, trying to hide his face from her, trying to run away.

"Answer me! Please, Koinu…tell me…"

"You died," Koinu whispered. He raised his head and pursed his lips, fighting his own bitter, painful tears. "But you have a second chance. Kasai, please, stop hurting yourself. Climb on my back—you get to go home." He stopped, stammering with a rush of self-consciousness and embarrassment, but the determination to get through to her pushed him onward ruthlessly, "Everyone loves you—I—I love you. We missed you so much—all of us…"

Kasai gazed at him, silent and motionless as the carved stone of a statue. A few tears slipped out of her eyes and sprinted down her cheeks.

Embarrassed, Koinu turned his back to her and gestured roughly. "Get on my back Kasai; we're falling way behind everyone else." Where she couldn't see his face, Koinu closed his eyes and let a few of his own tears come as he made a harsh, bitter face, baring his teeth down at the dirt and the grass. _I'm so stupid!_

Her touch on his shoulders and his back was gentle and weak, almost hesitant. Koinu felt her face press into the space between his shoulder blades. The moisture of her tears lingered with his sweat. He stood up and hefted her high on his shoulders with a sniffle.

On his back, Kasai's mind was a jumbled mess. She had died twice at the shrine really. The first had been spiritually as her brain and body had given up against the control of the parasite within her. That death had been gentle, an endless world of dreams and memories. She had seen Koinu there, her brothers, her mother and her father, everyone. It was real enough that she didn't consider the real world, didn't wonder why she jumped through time and why everything was familiar.

Her second death had not been a peaceful release. She remembered the burst of pain, of the sensation of rain on her body, of the sight of the grass briefly. Then there had been darkness and cold and probing touches all over her, languages that she didn't know, faces that were unfamiliar. She was lost in an endless crowd, but she was alone. It was as if the whole world's population shuffled around her, pawing at her, searching her with their mournful eyes and then turning away in disappointment. The horror of it continued to haunt her. Even after she awoke face up in the rain, Kasai longed for the return of the first death, the sweet death. At first she thought that was what had happened when she saw Koinu, though the rain confused her, as did Koinu's tears, his puffy eyes. And after she saw Kenpo's dead body she'd known she had returned to reality, not to any version of death.

Somehow she had yet to find comfort in it yet. Even Koinu's declaration of love barely reached her through those layers of remaining horror and loss. She could not think clearly about how she felt, and that in itself made her all the more angry with herself. She couldn't answer him in any meaningful way because she couldn't think, and she sensed that she'd hurt him already.

_Koinu,_ she thought, resting her cheek against his back. _I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have wasted those beautiful words on me._

* * *

With their scouting team, Shippo led the way in his fox form with his puffy tail upright and swinging back and forth like a beacon. Akisame trailed behind him several yards, arms crossed over her chest. As he hiked his way up a slope, Shippo stopped short, sniffing wildly. He pawed at the sand and shoved his nose into it.

Akisame noticed his distraction and halted, watching. "Shippo?"

The fox lifted his head and whined at her. The puffy tail lowered and flicked once at the dirt.

"What is it?" Akisame asked. She didn't approach any closer to Shippo, for multiple reasons. At times Shippo liked to play pranks. He would make it appear as though he'd found something interesting, and then when she approached he'd use his kitsune magic to electrocute her or she'd find out that the object of interest he'd found was animal poop. The other reason why she didn't advance was complex and troubling. Since her unfortunate stay at the brothel, Akisame found that she had trouble being in close proximity with Shippo because he was a kitsune. His scent was different than that of her captors', but at the same time it had a great many similarities. Akisame's aversion to foxes also extended to men. Unrelated males, demon or human, made her tense against her will and kick-started her heart. It was testosterone and sexual scents, arousal. They sent her skin itching with repulsion, her stomach tightening with disgust.

Shippo lowered his head and closed his eyes. Half a second later he had shed his full fox form in favor of adopting his bipedal, boyish form. He cleared his throat, making a face, and said, "It's Kohimu's scent—his blood."

Akisame stared at him, silent for a time. Then at last she murmured, "His blood? H-how much?"

"A bit," Shippo answered, evasively. He sniffed loudly a few times, turning to glance into the darkness of the woods. "I don't smell anything else here…"

_In other words, a body._ Akisame made a face, suddenly angry. "Of course not! He's fucking fine!"

Shippo blinked at her sudden ferocity. "Do you think we should tell the others?"

Akisame stared at the dirt, past her white priestess's sleeves and the billowing red pant legs. She despised the priestess costume, but it was the only thing she had to wear currently. She thought of her mother's priestess robes, the white top splattered with blood, reeking of death. She recalled the solemn look on her father's face as he sat Kagome down and picked her up again. And Kasai's defeated, miserable mask as she rode on Koinu's back.

She shook her head. "No, why worry them?"

Reluctantly Shippo nodded "I guess you're right. I just hope later on we don't—"

"We won't," Akisame growled, interrupting him violently. "He's fine. He was just injured, I'm sure."

* * *

They reached the village where they'd left Sango, Tisoki, and Nobe. The villagers remembered them and reacted without surprise, leading their troupe through the huts until they came to the healer's home. It was a larger structure than many of the other huts because it housed the healer, his apprentice, and his patients. A smaller hut unconnected to it on one side was where birthing mothers stayed under the midwife's care.

Upon the group's arrival, Miroku came first after Shippo and Akisame, propelled by the need to see his wife. He went first to the midwife's hut, but found it empty. Akisame and Shippo hovered near the healer's tent, uncomfortable and disturbed. Seeing them, Miroku took the silent cue and moved for the healer's tent, calling Sango's name.

Shippo tried to warn him, "Miroku…"

The monk ignored him and ducked into the healer's tent beneath the flap. He had expected to see Sango, but the first person that grabbed his attention wasn't his wife—it was Kohimu. His eldest son, always so strong and proud, laid on a thin mat, covered by a scratchy blanket. Kohimu's clothing had been removed, his chest exposed, his bare arms sculpted by archery. (A/N he would be SO buff guys. My boyfriend is a wimpy guy but he still has these big ridges in his back where archery made his muscles huge from drawing the bow.) Discolored, grayed bandages covered the youth's chest, wrapped over his shoulder and some of his neck. Flecks of brown and red had seeped through.

Kohimu's skin, all of it, was deathly pale with a white-gray pallor.

The woman watching over Kohimu escaped Miroku's notice completely until she looked up at him and called his name. At once he blinked as he recognized his wife. Sango's expression was dark and her own complexion, usually darkened and honeyed by her lifetime of traveling and fighting under the sun, had paled significantly.

The first instinct that rose inside Miroku was to envelop Sango in an embrace, more for his own need than hers, though he could see the puffiness around her eyes. He fought the desire, his back stiffening. He recalled Inuyasha saying that Kohimu had left the night before, but the information had slipped out of his mind like sand between his fingers. His concern had been for Kasai and Sango, not for his powerful son. "What happened?" he asked, choking on the words.

Sango shook her head. "I don't know. He arrived last night with a little girl." Sango looked away and swallowed hard. "She died early this morning. Kohimu shot her."

Miroku's mind spun, filled with confusion, but he pushed it away. With his courage swiftly fading, Miroku closed the distance between himself and Sango and knelt at Kohimu's bedside. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. Sango made a small sound, a little sob. Miroku felt her tears on his shoulder. He closed his own eyes, keeping the tears at bay with prayer. He had so many sons, but every member of his family was precious to him. Had he saved his daughter, only to sacrifice Kohimu and lose another child to Shiroihana?

* * *

Tisoki and Nobe stayed outside, greeting the others somberly while Miroku and Sango remained inside the healer's hut, reuniting in grief. Together they explained Kohimu's arrival the night before, his wounds, the girl, the remnants of the arrow in her back, and her death.

When Koinu arrived, trailing behind Masuyo and Inuyasha with Kagome because he hadn't wanted to wake Kasai on his back, Tisoki let Nobe finish the rest of their story. He rushed forward, calling Kasai's name.

Koinu scowled at him and tried to tell him that Kasai was sleeping, but it was already too late. She squirmed on his back and answered Tisoki's shouts, mumbling her older brother's nickname sleepily, "Soki?"

Koinu lowered her to the ground as Tisoki crashed into her, hugging Kasai without sparing even a moment to examine her. "Kasai! I was so worried about you!" he shouted.

Kasai smiled and a little sound escaped her throat, a mixture of joy, relief, and sadness. "Tisoki," she murmured, returning his crushing embrace. He had always been the older brother she favored, cursed with the perverted nature of their father just as she was, and spiritually gifted as well. She thought again with shame: _How could I have forgotten my family?_

Koinu shadowed the siblings timidly, following them as they moved to sit outside the healer's tent, to discuss their next move. He saw his mother leaning tiredly against his father, her eyes closed, her breathing slow. Masuyo was stoic and somber, but his eyes revealed the depth of his upset as he stared into nothing, caught within his own world of worry. Akisame stepped out of the group and met Koinu, slowing him down by grabbing his forearm.

Surprised, Koinu blinked at her, realizing that she was trying to speak to him, to tell him something. "Aki? What is it?"

"Sango's still pregnant," his sister whispered. "Dad wants to go home—I can see it in his face. He doesn't want to wait until Kohimu gets better."

Koinu's ears laid flat, disturbed. "How bad is he?"

Akisame frowned. "Nobe said the healer thinks he will live if he survives infection. The wound was a bite." Bites were notoriously hard to recover from. Mouths were filthy places, always carrying bacteria and other contagion. It was not really a question of _would_ there be infection, it was more like _how bad_ would it be?

Koinu glanced past Akisame toward Inuyasha, judging his father's disposition, guessing at what might pass through the hanyou's mind. Of course Inuyasha wouldn't want to abandon Sango and Miroku, but his concern lied with getting his own family to safety, perhaps letting Kagome go back to the bone eater's well to visit the doctors there. Unlike Masuyo and Miroku, Kagome had taken two blows, a hard one to the skull and a second to the gut. Leaning on Inuyasha's shoulder, she looked gray, weak.

Akisame followed his stair and frowned grimly. "Mom doesn't look good."

Koinu's ears stayed low, close to his scalp. "I know." Concern for their mother warred inwardly with the desire to protect Miroku and Sango and their children, an extended family of sorts. As he and Akisame watched, Kagome stirred, opening her eyes, and then tucked herself closer to Inuyasha. The hanyou was listening to Nobe talk, but he lifted his arm, wrapping it more firmly around Kagome in an almost unconscious movement.

Koinu's tension eased slightly. He let out a small breath. "I think Mom will be fine."

Akisame bit her lip, chewing on it viciously. "I hope you're right."

* * *

A/N no preview this time. Lo siento! (I'm sorry.)


	32. A Midnight Visit

A/N: Well this is a little longer than I would've liked but hey at least I'm back. I have had a rough time recently with writing. Not only have I been busy with class, but I was submitting to agents seeking representation and I just about ran out of them and they all rejected me. It's just really, really, really depressing. But I hope this helps...

Disclaimer: I own Koinu! Naw not really.

Last Chapter: Kohimu arrived at the village where the group left Sango with the little girl Hato. IY and the others set out. Kagome is not feeling the greatest. Kasai asked Koinu to tell her what happened while she was controlled by the parasite. With effort he did, and to comfort her, told her in a roundabout way that he loves her. Kasai wished that he hadn't wasted the words on her because she's been through so much she can't return them properly.

* * *

**A Midnight Visit**

Sango, Miroku, Tisoki, Kasai, and Masuyo all took turns waiting on Kohimu, trying to comfort him as the healer worked. His name was Mijai, an old man, short and squat. He had a pleasant bedside manner, speaking in a calm but happy voice, filled with encouragement. His wife was the village midwife, also short and squat. Unlike her husband she was energetic, her movements springy with life even in the smallest motions. She pounded and ground up herbs in the hut, stewing and steaming them over the cooking fire.

After some persuasion from Shippo and Koinu, and even a little from Kagome herself, Inuyasha allowed the healer to admit Kagome into his care as well. Kagome's body was stiff with pain and her head ached fiercely. She vomited, giving into nausea, when the midwife tried to offer her some pungent herbs. Inuyasha brooded over her, snapping at the healer and the midwife, then at his companions. He never left Kagome's bedside, as if his fierce presence inside the hut would scare away Death himself.

The hours, and then the days, passed with excruciating slowness. Kagome's condition improved steadily once the healer and the midwife managed to keep some of the herbal infusions down her. They were anti-inflammatory, easing Kagome's trauma-induced headache. Though she didn't know it, she had come close to dying. Injuries to the head were deceptive. A bump on the head, a large bruise, or a small abrasion from a blow to the skull concealed the shadow of Death that hung within. A hemorrhage in the brain would squash the delicate, precious organ against the skull, killing it. Although she escaped death, Kagome had flirted with it, passing too close to escape unscathed. Her illness and weakness were the result. Consciousness came and went, as fickle as sunlight on a cloudy day.

Kohimu's infection rose and fell like an invisible tide. One moment he burned and kicked, trying to cool off. He begged for water in a babbling, incoherent voice as if infection had regressed his development, turning him into something like a toddler having a nightmare. An hour later and his teeth would chatter and he clung to anyone that hovered near his bedside, calling for more blankets. The healer moved Kohimu close to the fire, to let the young man feel the heat of the flames. The sweat on his brow glistened like grease oozing out of a chicken on a skillet.

After a week Kagome had mostly recovered her strength, though her headache often returned at the height of the day when the light was at its brightest or if she stared too long at the firelight. Kohimu's fevers had lessened, but he was weak and his body was still fighting the infection. He was young and strong, giving him the edge over his illness, but the prolonged fevers and blood loss had weakened him. He babbled in his sleep about shooting the boy Osore and Hato with his arrow, lamenting the deaths to the air. In his more lucid moments Kohimu was able to snap fully awake and take in his surroundings, to ask about Hato and then about Kasai.

The first time he came awake and saw Miroku watching over him. Kohimu yelped with alarm and pawed at his father, demanding information from him in a raspy, dry voice.

"Hush," Miroku said, taking his son's hand and then brushing his brow, wiping away the sweat with the edge of his long sleeve. "Everything's fine, Kohimu."

"The girl—?" Kohimu croaked, and then with even more fervor: "Kasai?"

"Kasai is safe," Miroku murmured. He didn't answer Kohimu's first question about the little girl Hato.

"Is she here?" Kohimu asked. He had risen slightly from his cot when he'd come awake, but now the effort of holding himself even partially upright was too much. He slumped back to the cot and his eyelids fluttered with exhaustion.

"Yes, she's here."

"Can I…?" but the healer Mijai swooped in before Miroku could hear the rest of his son's words.

"Sir," Mijai addressed Kohimu with a title of respect as he pressed in close to the youth around Miroku. "You must eat."

The healer had brought a food broth and some water. Kohimu resisted Mijai's efforts but weakness prevented him from stopping the healer as Mijai poured the thick broth and then the water into his mouth. By the time the brief meal had been swallowed exhaustion had reclaimed Kohimu. Miroku tried to stir his son out of the sleep, but the healer scolded him for the attempt. "He needs to sleep!"

Miroku sat back, watching his son's chest rise and fall, the sweat already accumulating once more on his brow. The monk sighed and closed his eyes, lowering his head to resume prayer.

* * *

To accommodate the two visiting families the villagers had constructed a very crude hut near the healer's home. It was tiny and cramped, made of thin wood, some of it rotted and scavenged from abandoned homes on the outskirts of the village. Inuyasha complained bitterly about the musty scent of the wood. He stayed almost exclusively beside Kagome in the healer's hut, leaving Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo on their own with Miroku, Sango, and all of their children. Even after Kagome had recovered enough to leave the healer's home Inuyasha insisted that she had to stay there rather than returning to the rotting wood of the shelter the villagers had made.

Among Miroku and Sango's children a strange new dynamic appeared. Tisoki cleaved to Nobe as if they were brothers, beginning the boy's apprenticeship himself. Tisoki had always followed Kohimu during their childhood and even since coming of age at sixteen when they were both considered men. Tisoki coped with Kohimu's absence by bonding with Nobe, adopting a new brother of sorts, but this time Tisoki was the leader in the relationship, a first for him. He might've grown closer to Masuyo, but his younger brother had withdrawn from everyone.

Masuyo took his turns watching after Kohimu like all the rest of his family, but when he was free to wander the village, Masuyo retreated from the rickety hut in favor of searching out throwing stones. The boy wandered the edges of the clearing surrounding the village, picking out the finest pebbles. He practiced with the sling, hunting songbirds in the trees. Sometimes Shippo accompanied them, but the pair worked in silence and operated as hunter and hunting dog—or rather, hunting fox. Masuyo practiced his sling, often killing small creatures in the trees. Shippo retrieved the animals and usually ate them himself, raw. If the animal was larger, a pheasant or a hare, Shippo brought them back to Sango for dinner, or as a gift to the villagers or the healer.

The others, through their own distress, didn't take Masuyo's estrangement as anything but grief. In reality the boy was preparing himself for a life change. He expected Kohimu, so strong and proud, to recover completely in the fullness of time—but he would not be there to see it. Every unexpected sound from the woods, or call from a distant predator sent every muscle in his body stiff. He knew that it was only a matter of time before _she_—Shiroihana—showed up to take him away. So he did the only thing he felt he could: prepare for life on his own by pulling back from his family.

Kasai remained unusually quiet, staying most often with Miroku and Sango, helping her mother prepare food. Koinu shadowed her, working at her side. When he wasn't following Kasai, Koinu accompanied Akisame, guarding her or keeping her company. He watched over Kagome with Akisame and Inuyasha and sometimes Shippo too.

Laughter was rare in these times; the work was conducted mostly under silence, but during the first week of Kohimu's illness, Kasai gradually started smiling again. She could meet her father's eyes without recalling the lump on his head or the headaches he'd had immediately after her rescue. Sometimes, between work and shifts watching over Kohimu, Kasai found herself recalling Kenpo and the tears swept over her. How had he died? She recalled the gentle death of her mind, when the parasite had taken over her body, banishing her consciousness. She swung between relief that she had survived and guilt that she had been something so evil, that she had nearly killed her brother, her father, and Kagome—and _someone_ had bitten Inuyasha and purified him at Master Dani's temple too. She could not bring herself to remember that she had consumed human flesh, drank human blood. These sins stayed with her, hard to bury or erase, setting up an invisible wall between her and her family.

But she survived, gradually building confidence, by pushing aside those thoughts and memories. She was like Masuyo, estranged from all of the others, except that she worked beside them, physically integrated with them. She wanted to rejoin them while Masuyo disentangled himself from them.

Out of boredom, because she despised cooking and Inuyasha would explode if she wandered off, Akisame started sitting with Tisoki and Nobe, trying to learn how to carve, a very basic demon slayer lesson. Tisoki's lessons were stilted when she tried to learn from him—he was worried about Koinu and Inuyasha getting angry with his close proximity to Akisame—and Nobe for his part couldn't pay attention to the carving when she was sitting just a few feet from him. He stared at her openly, holding his knife incorrectly, which made Tisoki stop to reprimand him.

Sango chuckled when she saw the interaction. Her smile was warm, full of a mother's pride. She was working with Kasai and Koinu, shaping rice into balls. They had paid for the rice with a carved bone figurine, made by Tisoki.

"He's such a fine teacher," Sango said, still gazing at her second born son. She blinked at the moisture in her eyes and ducked her head down to brush the tears away with her arm. Kohimu was the better carver of the pair, but Tisoki had more patience than his older brother. Sango could not help but think of her eldest son, pale and shivering, when she considered the carving lesson.

"It's okay, Mom," Kasai told her, quietly. Their hands stilled over the rice balls, ceasing their work.

Koinu, however, continued working. His ears had flattened, troubled by a different memory and also the distraction of his sister sitting with the young men. Kohimu and Tisoki had teased him mercilessly when he tried to carve with them. The old wound stung along with the tenseness he felt because Akisame was with them.

Sango went back to work, her hands and fingers deftly moving over the sticky, seasoned rice balls, forming them without the rice sticking to her palms. Compared with her deftness, Koinu and Kasai both had rice on their fingers, sticky and chunky. Koinu in particular got the rice caught beneath his claws. _I can't even do this,_ he thought, still haunted by Tisoki and Kohimu's taunts weeks ago…

"What's wrong?" Kasai asked him, startling Koinu into looking up at her, wide-eyed and blinking.

"Nothing," he replied, automatically. How had she known?

As if she could read his mind Kasai seemingly answered his unspoken question: "You were making a face."

"Oh." He looked down at the rice and frowned at it, pushing at the individual sticky grains. His ball was oblong, imperfect.

"What is it?" Kasai asked quietly, watching him. When Koinu didn't answer, focusing instead on the rice balls, Kasai asked, "Is it the carving?"

He tried to stop himself but it was impossible. His ears fell flat, revealing his response to her words. He tried to cover it by huffing like his father and gesturing toward the deformed rice ball. "I can't shape this stupid thing."

"Let me have it," Sango said. She reached across Kasai's work space and took the offending rice ball. Koinu watched her reshape it perfectly in a matter of seconds and his irritation mounted even further.

With an effort, aware of Kasai's eyes on him, Koinu avoided her gaze and returned to the rice. He snatched up another wad of the sticky batter and worked it with his fingers and palms. Kasai returned to work as well. Koinu covertly watched her method for shaping the rice, looking for hints. His fingers stayed active, poking into his own rice blob, but it was just an act to keep Kasai from noticing that his attention was actually on her and her work.

He had opened up to her quickly after they had rescued her and she'd been brought back to life. Since then he'd shadowed her much as Inuyasha haunted Kagome's steps. He carried her sword _Burikko_ at his hip because she had refused to take it back from him. He kept a watchful tab on her during the day and the night. Kasai had not returned his emotion, but she hadn't pushed him away either. He had seen her watching him when he wasn't with her, and the expression on her face was one of sadness and longing. Some emotion hid beneath her violet eyes, but the recent trauma in her life had left her shattered and vulnerable. The old Kasai, strong and independent, that he had always known warily was gone, replaced with a broken, fragile girl that he felt certain would crumble if he left her.

Her long black hair was tied back much as Sango's was. Both the women were wearing poor quality kimonos bought from the villagers. Their original clothes were gone or soiled with mud, blood, and rain. The glow of life had faded in Kasai since her ordeal, but she was still beautiful, lithe, and skilled.

Her fingers were still moving over the rice ball when she twisted her head around, peering at him over one shoulder. Koinu looked instantly away, but she had caught him in the act and he was sure she could see the blush growing over his cheeks. The rice blob at his fingertips was a mess, as if shaped by a drunk. It was filled with pock marks where Koinu's claws had stabbed it.

Pushing aside her finished ball, Kasai reached silently over to Koinu and moved her hands over his. Confused and embarrassed, Koinu pulled his hands away and mumbled, "Take it."

"No, here…" Kasai took his clawed fingers, pulling them back to the wad of rice. She shaped them around the ball and mimed the motions. Koinu copied her slowly, shyly, fighting a blush that burned down his neck into his chest. The ball came slowly together, rounding out of its unequal oblong shape.

Even as he felt pride with the successful shape of the rice, embarrassment and pride made him knock her hands away the moment the ball was acceptable. "I should be able to…"

"It's not as easy as it looks," Kasai murmured.

Sango, watching them with a small smile opened her mouth to say _For a beginner you're doing wonderfully,_ but she silenced the words on her tongue, knowing it would embarrass Koinu further.

"Still," Koinu grumped, frowning. He took another wad of rice and worked it, trying to recreate the success of the first one without Kasai's help. His face burned red hot, feeling both Kasai and Sango's eyes on him. The ball formed, but it was not as good as it had been under Kasai's guidance. Koinu fought to hide his disappointment, but the blush would not fade.

"It takes a lot of practice," Kasai reassured him. Then, after a moment of silence, she lowered her voice and said, "I could teach you to carve too."

Koinu glared at her, instantly forgetting the rice ball. He stammered with anger for a moment and then looked away, burying the initial outrage when he saw Kasai cringe away from him. He stared down at his fingers, covered by the bits of rice and drew a deep, steadying breath. Her face flashed before his eyelids, the momentary flicker of fear, of pain. _Why am I angry with her?_ Was it because she had inadvertently insulted his pride, or was it more than that? Frustration?

He seized on the first distraction he could: Akisame. His sister was cursing at her block of wood while Tisoki laughed nervously, trying to instruct her without angering her or one of her male relatives. It was more than enough of an excuse for Koinu to retreat from Kasai and Sango.

"Hey!" he growled and shot to his feet, crossing the room in two strides and snatching Akisame by the arm.

Akisame yelped, dropping the knife and the block of wood, both of which Tisoki scrambled to catch. "What's the big idea Koinu?" she demanded, and then slapped him with sudden revulsion. "Ew! You're hands are sticky! Let go of me!"

"I think that's enough carving—Dad wouldn't like you with them."

"Koinu! What the—"

He dragged her out of the hut, heading for the healer's home. Even with Akisame in tow, yelling and struggling against him, the fresh air outside cooled him, filling him with relief. He breathed deeply, burying the emotions the anger that had surfaced.

* * *

Rains swept in at the end of the week. The makeshift hut for the two families, with its rotten wood, also had a horrible roof. Sango went back to the midwife's home, gritting her teeth through cramps that threatened to push the unborn baby out of her yet again. Miroku waited uneasily now on both his son and his wife. The gloomy clouds were thick overhead, unwilling to relinquish their hold on the world. The rains continued into the next week, growing colder as a wind picked up and the summer temperature gave way into a bitterer, more winterish chill.

At around midnight on the fourth day of the endless rain and drizzle in the second week of the families' stay, Shiroihana reappeared.

Under the leaky roof Tisoki and Nobe shared blankets, huddling together for warmth. Inuyasha and Miroku were gone, inside the healer's home with Kagome or Kohimu. Koinu stayed with his sister, sleeping fitfully, snapping awake every so often to wipe at the wetness that accumulated over their blankets and to shake out his hair. Masuyo shared his warmth with Kasai, but he barely slept. The fire had gone out with the continual dampness and the hut smelled powerfully of mildew and wet straw. Kasai cried out occasionally in her sleep, further disturbing Masuyo, keeping him awake. He rolled over and strained his eyes in the dark, trying to see. Without the light of the fire it was hopeless, his eyes made nothing out, not even the glimmer of the raindrops falling from the leaky roof.

Koinu made a sound in the dark, grunting. Sounds came through the blackness, shifting blankets muffled by wetness, a slick slapping as Koinu shook himself dry. It was a sound that Masuyo had heard many times throughout that night and the three nights before since the rain. He could predict what happened next too: Akisame awoke and grumbled about the dampness through chattering teeth.

And then, suddenly, a break in the monotony. From outside a man shouted—it was Inuyasha.

"Everyone up! Get up!"

A microsecond later and the hanyou was inside the hut with them, batting irritably at the dripping straw mat that covered the doorway. Orange light from fires inside the houses and huts nearby flowed in behind him, silhouetting Inuyasha's frame. "Get up!" he barked again, nudging the closest sleepers to the door—Akisame and Koinu.

Koinu was already sitting up obediently, but Akisame resisted, slashing at Inuyasha's pant leg. "What do you want, Dad?" she groaned, echoing sentiments from Tisoki and Nobe.

Masuyo felt dread open up inside him. No one needed to explain what was happening him him—he was certain he already knew. Kasai snapped awake behind him, sitting up rapidly, jumping alert and looking toward Inuyasha in the doorframe. "What's…?"

A new shadow appeared in the dim light, popping into existence with spray of dust. It was Shippo, crouched low on all fours. "It's Sesshomaru's mother!"

Tisoki rose first and moved to the back corner of the leaky hut where the group kept their weapons stashed, covered by a blanket. He ripped it off, flinging water out in a spray through the dark. His sickle clicked metallically as he coiled the chain around his arm. "Nobe," he called, digging through the weapons, "You take the throwing knives…Masuyo—I can't find your sling…"

Masuyo had slept with his weapon safely tucked away in his robes. His hand fell over the bag of stones and pebbles. He clutched it and wordlessly ran for the door, following Inuyasha who had already left with Akisame.

Kasai, alone where she had been sleeping beside Masuyo, blinked confusedly in the darkness, struggling internally with herself. Her hand had flown to her hip when Inuyasha woke them; a long established habit made her think that _Burikko_ was there. It wasn't. Her hand fell against the flare of bone in her pelvis, nothing else. Before she could make up her mind to call for Koinu he was there, knelt beside her in the blackness while Tisoki and Nobe rooted through the weapons.

He pushed something hard and cold into her lap. Kasai recognized her sword at once. "Koinu…" she said, her voice wavering.

"Don't be afraid," he whispered.

She found the hilt and felt the handle, gripping it tightly. She remembered Kagome in Master Dani's arms, limp and unconscious. The tree branch she had grabbed onto, trying to tear off and wield like a sword…

"Come on!" Tisoki yelled, pushing at both Koinu and Kasai. Nobe stumbled after them, tripping twice before they came to the door where Shippo held the straw mat up, letting them out.

In the light rain outside Inuyasha took stock of them, formulating a plan. Shippo moved to stand at his side and his body clouded, his form reshaping itself until he was a large fox, sniffing and then shaking the rain out of his fur.

"Shippo's the one that smelled her," Inuyasha said. "We're going to find her and see what the hell she wants. Miroku stays with Sango, Masuyo you watch over Kohimu, Aki you stay with your mother. Everyone else is with me and Shippo. Let's hope the stupid bitch isn't here for a fight."

"Inuyasha!" Masuyo yelled and the hanyou transferred his attention to the boy with a swivel of both ears. Masuyo blinked against the rain as he looked up at him. "I want to go with you. She's here for me."

"What are you talking about?" Tisoki demanded, nearly interrupting his younger brother.

Masuyo stood firm, his spine straight and tense. "I know she's here for me."

Shippo gave a small bark and raced off, cutting his way with a splash through the rain. Koinu turned and chased after the fox. Inuyasha did the same, leaping away without bothering to resolve the issue, leaving Tisoki, Nobe, Masuyo, Akisame, and Kasai standing in the rain. Miroku, Sango, Kohimu, and Kagome hadn't left the midwife or the healer's hut. Shippo had gone straight to Inuyasha when he sensed Shiroihana, not bothering to worry any of the others. Now it was just the children.

"She came here for me," Masuyo spoke in a dark, brooding voice.

"Why would you think that?" Tisoki insisted. "That's stupid! Why would she come here to hurt you? Why is she even here at all?"

No one had bothered to tell Tisoki or Nobe of Shiroihana's deal with Miroku. In fact Akisame was out of the loop as well. She stared blankly at Masuyo, who was her same age, shaking in the cold rainfall.

"You guys should stay here with Mom and Dad," Masuyo said, frowning. The frown was not anger or frustration. His chin wrinkled, his brow puckered.

"I won't let her take you," Kasai announced suddenly. She had been holding _Burikko_ in her hands awkwardly, but as she made her decision, Kasai gripped it anew, adopting the first sign of her normal confidence as her nimble, smart body recalled how to fight. She stepped forward, blocking the way for Masuyo to follow after Koinu, Shippo, and Inuyasha.

"This is ridiculous," Tisoki shouted, taking charge. "Masuyo! Do as Inuyasha instructed! Go watch after Kohimu. He needs your protection. Akisame!"

The girl turned at the sound of her name, startled but alert. "What?"

"Go protect your mother."

Uncertainly, glancing between Kasai and Masuyo and then to the darkness beyond the faint light from the village huts and houses where her brother, Shippo, and her father would be fighting without her. Just as quickly she saw her mother sleeping peacefully, unaware of the danger. Vulnerable. She turned and ran into the healer's hut, obeying her father.

"Nobe," Tisoki called the stunned boy to attention. "Follow me—Kasai you too."

As Tisoki and Nobe slipped past Kasai and disappeared, Masuyo's hard outer shell broke at last. His face twisted up and cracked as he stared at the ground, the tufts of grass inundated by water like rice plants growing in an irrigated field. The rain covered the rush of his tears.

Kasai dropped her sword and moved for him, wrapping her arms around him. She pressed her cheek to the top of his head, the hair long since soaked through by the rain. Her own hair fell free of restraint, dribbling in a long curtain around her shoulders and back.

"You can't go!" she told him, her words quiet against the hiss of the rain.

"She came for—me," Masuyo sobbed. "I know—it."

"No," Kasai insisted, shaking her head, even though with his face tucked close to her body he would never see it. "You can't go. I won't let it happen." She closed her eyes and saw Master Dani carrying Kagome, she saw her inability to protect herself or save anyone. She saw Kenpo lying dead on the grass and she heard Koinu's sobbing in a different rain…_I can't stop it…_

* * *

In his fox form Shippo ran with his nose low to the ground, snuffling. The scent of the female inuyoukai was light, unclear, and washed out by the rain, but he knew that she was nearby. The clearing around the village, where Masuyo practiced with his sling by day, now became the minefield where he conducted his search.

Koinu trailed him, also sniffing, but his sense of smell was dulled down twice over by genetics and then again by the rain. It was unlikely that he would pick out anything through the rain.

A wind stirred up through the dark, whooshing and hissing in the trees of the forest a few yards to their right. Shippo halted, lifting his nose into the wind and the slash of the chilled rain, trying to pick out the scent.

Inuyasha appeared out of the darkness, his white hair gleaming in Shippo's powerful night vision. The hanyou shook and grumbled irritably, pawing at his ears, flicking away as much of the accumulated wetness as he could. "Have you found the stupid bitch yet, Shippo?"

The kit answered him by snorting, a quick and wet puff of air through his nose. It was less by smell that he had known she was present, more that a sixth sense went off inside him, a warning-system of instincts that warned him when a bigger, more dangerous youkai was around. This time the aura was female and inuyoukai. The only answer he could think of was that Sesshomaru's mother had returned to pay them a visit.

A sound came from the trees to their right, different from the howl and swish of the wind. It was sharp and short, a cracking sound. Shippo whipped his head in that direction and both Koinu and Inuyasha looked up, picking out the noise as well. Shippo lunged forward, but in mid-motion he winked out of visibility, reappearing half a second later just inside the trees.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha cursed after him. "Wait up!"

Through the inky blackness of the night, Shippo spotted something light, glowing just as Inuyasha's hair had. He gave a small yip and lifted his tail, trying to act as a signal to Inuyasha and Koinu that he'd found something. The shape ahead of him at first glance seemed to fit what Shippo had expected, but as he narrowed his eyes and examined the distant white shape more closely, he realized it was not what had alarmed him back in the village. This was too small and clumsy…

It fell once, crying out in a momentary, high-pitched voice. With a jolt Shippo realized what this white shape was: Saya. _What is she doing here? Where is…_

Inuyasha and Koinu came up behind him and stopped, catching sight of Saya through the darkness. Inuyasha recognized his niece much faster than Shippo and breathed her name in shock: "Saya…?"

"Father?" Koinu called, his voice shivery, "What do we do?"

Inuyasha growled under his breath with frustration. He shouted to Saya, "Hey! Kid! What are you doing here?"

She lifted her head, the white hair spilling over her shoulders. Her robes were soaked to her shoulders, a light color with a dark pattern. Two spots of gold glimmered at the fox, her uncle, and her cousin as she caught sight of them at last.

"Uncle Inuyasha!" she shouted.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Inuyasha repeated, fearlessly heading toward her with a mixture of walking and bounding, making his way over slippery, uneven terrain.

"Do you smell anything Shippo? Anything else?" Koinu asked, tense. He turned his head and peered back over his shoulder toward the dim orange light from the village. His ears swiveled as he made out the sound of Tisoki and Nobe, rushing through the empty field, searching for them with their feeble human senses.

Shippo snuffled again, a negative answer, but he stayed stiff and allowed his unease to show, fluffing the fur of his tail and back. Koinu noticed it and asked, "You don't think she's alone, do you?"

Inuyasha had reached Saya and, without bothering to listen to the girl's explanation, if there was one anyway, he knelt and started to scoop her up. Saya squirmed, fighting him. "Uncle Inuyasha! Please stop! Lady Shiroihana told me not to move from here!"

He froze for only a moment before pulling back from her as if she had bitten him. "So the bitch is here after all," he muttered. "What the hell does she want? Why are you here, kid?"

Saya, awkwardly bent over in a halfway bow, rose out of it and shook her head, sending off a spray of raindrops. "I'm sorry, Uncle. Lady Shiroihana speaks in riddles—I don't know—"

A male shout from the field beyond the trees made Inuyasha, Shippo, and Koinu turn as one with alarm. A chain rattled and Tisoki lifted his voice, yelling an attack.

Shippo turned tail and ran at once for the sounds of the skirmish. Koinu shouted to Inuyasha, "She's attacking!"

Inuyasha's ears fell flat and his mind churned rapidly. "Koinu—get over here with me!" As Koinu ran to him obediently, hopping over fallen tree trunks and springy pine saplings, Inuyasha grabbed Saya's shoulder, pulling hard on the fabric and the small frame beneath.

Saya whimpered with alarm. "Uncle…?"

Inuyasha's face stayed hard, even as the sound of her fear twisted inside his gut like a knife. Saya was his only defense, a hostage. He would use her to stop Shiroihana.

* * *

With the first shout, Masuyo pushed Kasai's embrace away. "Let go! She'll kill them!"

"No! Masuyo!" Kasai reached for him but her fingers splattered on his wet clothes, missing him. She let out a little cry of grief as Masuyo slipped away, his feet splashing over the puddles. Kasai stumbled after him, snatching _Burikko_ out of the mud and the grass. "Masuyo!"

* * *

The white form of the inuyoukai woman came out of the darkness like a streak of lightening from thunderheads. One moment Tisoki and Nobe were approaching the woods, circling the clearing around the village, searching for signs of the intruder Shippo had spoken of. The next second and Tisoki found himself lying in the mud and gathering puddles of water over the grass. When he lifted his head he saw the white shape towering above him, holding Nobe with both hands.

Nobe shouted incoherently, flailing. The throwing knives that Tisoki had entrusted the boy with fell to the puddles in the grass, splashing or imbedding themselves in the mud.

Tisoki rolled away from their attacker, already gathering up the chain of his sickle as he moved. He hopped onto his feet and let the sickle fly with battle cry, but the sickle sliced through empty air. The inuyoukai woman easily side-stepped his attack.

Nobe screamed, "Help me!"

The inuyoukai woman turned Nobe's body from side to side and then her face curled into a sneer. "You're not even a demon slayer, are you boy?"

Nobe gaped at her, stricken, senseless with terror.

The inuyoukai woman tossed him away to one side just as Tisoki shouted once more and sent the sickle slicing through the rain at her. She lifted her arm, moving the blur of white fluff with it, and the sickle bounced harmlessly away. While it was still falling and Tisoki struggling to reel it in for another throw, the woman flicked her other hand and wrist. A ghostly green light started in a long line like a snake. It wrapped around Tisoki's chain with a crack.

She smiled as she gave a small tug on the whip, ripping the sickle away from the demon slayer.

Tisoki cried out with shock as the chain slipped out of his hands. He heard shouting from the woods to his right and from the village, saw that Nobe was alive as the boy struggled to get to his feet out of the wet grass, then the green light snapped out again, catching his throwing arm around the bicep. Tisoki screamed as the whip burned him and then, as the inuyoukai woman pulled on him, he fell face first to the ground, sliding slickly over the mud and grass toward her.

"Impressive, human," she said, wriggling her fingers as the whip disappeared back into her hand, retracting and pulling Tisoki steadily closer.

Thinking fast, Tisoki reached inside his drenched clothes and found a small carving knife. He slashed at the spectral green light of the whip and it flickered, nearly failing.

"Impressive indeed," she murmured with a small hiss.

The light went out, the whip vanished. Tisoki laid still for a moment, holding his arm, gritting his teeth in pain. He heard the inuyoukai woman grunt somewhere above him, "You're too old…"

"Hey bitch!" Inuyasha's voice interrupted Shiroihana's musing. Shiroihana turned her head and her eyes narrowed with a mixture of irritation and concern. Her night vision was equal to Shippo's perhaps better, and she could easily see that Inuyasha had arrived with a hostage. She stifled the growl that tried to rise up in her throat.

She backed away from Tisoki, hugging her white fur closer to herself while she pretended not to care that Inuyasha was dragging Saya along behind him, pulling her by the arm. "Hanyou," she addressed him blandly. "I did not come here to challenge you…"

"The hell you didn't!" he snarled back at her. Koinu stood just behind him, wielding nothing but his own claws. Inuyasha held Tetsusaiga drawn and transformed in one hand, and in the other he had Saya pressed close to him, held there against her will. The kitsune had changed back into his boy form and was helping Nobe and Tisoki, pulling them further away from Shiroihana, toward the village.

"Uncle…?" Saya murmured, shivering under the rain.

Inuyasha ignored her, his ears stayed flat atop his head, dripping and miserable. His eyes were narrowed, his jaw clenched. "I want you to leave," he growled to Shiroihana.

"The monk and I have a deal to conclude. I have saved one of his children from Death. In return I will take one of his children as a hostage. It is a fair price to pay, a life for a life." After a short pause, Shiroihana's face split open in a wide, dark smile. "You do not have the power to stop me, hanyou. I know you cannot kill Saya. Your threat is pointless."

Inuyasha growled and closed his fist around the collar of Saya's kimono. The little hanyou girl looked with wild fear between her grandmother and her uncle, and then to her cousin standing behind her. She flexed her small claws, thinking of attacking Koinu to surprise Inuyasha and force him to release her, but the thought of harming one of them…she squeezed her eyes shut and started to shout, babbling, "Lady Shiroihana! Leave Uncle alone! Please! I beg you! He saved my life!"

Before Shiroihana could answer, a new parade of voices came, this time from the village. Water splashed and slurped. Koinu, Inuyasha, Saya, and Shippo turned and saw Masuyo racing for them through the dark, running straight for Shiroihana. Just behind him, struggling to catch him with her kimono soaked heavy with water, was Kasai. A glint of metal flashed at her side.

Shiroihana's golden eyes slid slyly toward the boy and her stance changed slightly as she lowered her hands, flicking her clawed fingers.

Tisoki and Nobe, with their weaker eyes, only identified the newcomers when Masuyo and Kasai were feet away, rushing past them. Tisoki shouted at them both, trying to order Masuyo back to the village. "Kasai! Stop him! Masu's crazy!"

Masuyo was still twenty feet shy of her when Shiroihana sent out her green whip. It struck like a snake, snatching Masuyo by one leg. The boy tripped and fell, crying out. His sling, which he had been holding with a stone already set inside, flew out of his hands. Shiroiahan pulled on the whip and it retracted rapidly, dragging Masuyo over the ground. At first the boy struggled, clawing at the mud, but the slick ground offered no resistance. He rolled onto his back as Shiroihana pulled him closer and fumbled with his clothes, searching for a knife just as Tisoki had…

"Yo bitch!" Inuyasha shouted, desperate to stop her or distract her, but Shiroihana ignored him.

Kasai reached her younger brother and grabbed him, pulling against the whip. Masuyo screeched with pain and frustration and the two forces tugged on him. Kasai slashed with _Burikko_. The whip flickered and then faded as Shiroihana released it. As Kasai heaved her younger brother to his feet, losing her grip on _Burikko_ to do so, Shiroihana rushed them.

With a short slapping motion Shiroihana backhanded Kasai, knocking her away.

"Kasai!" Koinu lunged for her but Inuyasha, moving instinctively to keep his son out of harm's way, released Saya and snatched his son by the arm.

"Koinu, don't—" And then he panicked, realizing that his only leverage on Shiroihana had ducked and slipped past him. Saya sprinted out of his reach. He blustered and pointed, trying to get Koinu to catch her but the pup's attention was on Shiroihana, Masuyo, and Kasai. He cursed, "Shit!"

"Lady Shiroihana!" Saya yelled. "Lady Shiroihana! Stop!"

Shiroihana had taken Masuyo by the arm, pulling him close to her. She had been about to force the knife out of his hands, but Saya's cries distracted her and Masuyo struck, slashing at her chest, at her arms holding him. The inuyoukai woman hissed with brief pain and then grabbed Masuyo's wrist. Her claws bit into his flesh and the boy dropped the blade, but he refused to cry out. He had hoped against the odds to kill her, and pride swelled inside him as he saw a dark color appear on her white fluff. Her hands were bleeding faintly and as she struggled with him it smeared on her kimono and on her shoulder fluff. He stared up into her golden eyes, unblinking against the rain, unafraid and filled with hate.

"Masuyo!" Kasai was on her feet again. Her hands found her sword, closed over the hilt. She rushed forward, slashing at Shiroihana with everything she had. Shiroihana side-stepped Kasai's charge, carrying the boy with her. Kasai slipped when her sword failed to meet with resistance. She fell hard into a puddle, coughing and choking.

Saya had paused between her uncle and her grandmother while Shiroihana fought, but when Shiroihana moved back from Kasai and forced Masuyo to drop the blade, she came the rest of the way to her grandmother and fell at the powerful inuyoukai woman's feet. "Please!" she cried, begging in a pant, "Grandmother!"

"Yes," Shiroihana said, glancing down at Saya. "I believe it's time for us to leave, Saya."

"Let go of Masu!" Kasai yelled, lifting her sword up, threatening the demon woman yet again.

Shiroihana gazed irritably at Kasai. She held Masuyo close and the boy didn't struggle, resigned to his fate. She said, "I saved you, girl. This is the price that I demand." Here she lifted Masuyo's hand and turned him, reaching out for Saya. She pushed the two children together, letting them stand side-by-side. Masuyo was taller, darker, Saya small, lithe, and fair. "This boy is now my hostage. No harm will come to him."

"Feh!" Inuyasha snarled. "How are we supposed to fucking believe that?"

"If I had wanted to kill any one here I could and still can do it at any time," Shiroihana assured him. "Do not tempt me, hanyou. Your life has been a stain on my memory for many years now."

Kasai lowered her eyes and her shoulders began to shake. "Please," she sobbed. "Please…no…"

Koinu growled, edging forward another step as if he might attack. Inuyasha tugged restrainedly on his son's haori, keeping him in check.

Several yards away, with Shippo and Nobe, Tisoki hauled himself to his feet and challenged Shiroihana with: "At least let our brother say goodbye." His voice was tight, hiding the shock and pain he felt at having doubted Masuyo earlier, at having called him crazy.

There was a long pause, through which only the sound of the hissing rain and the swish of the leaves could be heard. Then, finally, Shiroihana said, "I will permit it." Gently she pushed Masuyo toward Kasai. "Return him within the hour. Saya and I will be waiting."

Slowly the group moved with Masuyo at its center toward the village. Inuyasha and Shippo hung at the end of the group, watching Shiroihana suspiciously as they moved on. They were out of earshot when Saya started pulling on Shiroihana's robes, demanding, "Why did you bring me here, Lady Shiroihana? Why are you taking that boy?"

Shiroihana's lips curled in a small smile as she regarded her shivering granddaughter. She brushed Saya's wet skin, her soaked hair. "That boy is to become your protector, Saya."


	33. Parting Words

A/N: My campus is going crazy with Election Day. Like God Himself has come down. It was a weird day too, it's November and we reached 72 degrees F. That's hot when you're used to thinking 60 F is fabulous. I sweat in my classes, gross. All the buildings have the heat turned on, so this heat wave they were unprepared for. But yeah, world is crazy. By the time you read this you will know who the next president will be. Time travel! Hopefully FFnet will respect my horizontal rule marks and stuff. It didn't for one of the recent _Return _chapters. This is a bit of a sad-ish chapter but next chapter things will get lighter because everyone's getting better. Time to go home! And then that's the end...

Disclaimer: I do not own it.

Last Chapter: About a week and a half passed with Kagome gradually recovering and Kohimu suffering fevers. Shiroihana came back for Masuyo. Of course she couldn't do it in a civilized manner. She brought Saya and IY found her. To protect everyone he took her hostage (albeit halfheartedly and rather weakly) but it didn't really stop Shiroihana and Saya got free and begged her grandmother to stop attacking them. At Tisoki's request, Sessmom agreed to let Masuyo say goodbye to everyone first.

* * *

**Parting Words**

It was a fever-dream, nothing more. One of many, ongoing, never ending.

On his closed eyelids Kohimu saw a dragon spouting fire. The flames licked his body, bathing him, but never consuming him. Light flickered through the darkness of his mind, flashes like lightning. A fat, sloppy slug laid over his forehead, dripping cold liquid over his brow and onto his cheeks. Kohimu locked his lips closed against the moisture, though he was very thirsty with his tongue sticky and too big for his mouth.

Cold touches came on his face, brushing away the slime from the slug. The stink of herbs in Kohimu's nose burned through his sinuses, setting his head alight with pain. He opened his eyes a fraction and saw the outline of a woman, lean and lithe, with long black hair spilling in a waterfall over her shoulders. It was wet, caught in strings. As she pulled back from him, finished wiping away the slug-slime, Kohimu recognized her eyes. They were not brown but violet-blue, the color of delicate springtime blooms.

"Kasai…" he croaked, recalling her name from another life, one where he crushed slugs under his foot and killed dragons with his arrows. "Kasai. Sister."

She made a sound, a whimper of pain.

_It is a dream._ Kohimu closed his eyes and turned his head away. The slug on his forehead had warmed against his burning skin. It slid off when he moved his head. Through lidded eyes, weighed down by exhaustion, Kohimu saw that the slug was white and impossibly huge. His mind could not fathom it, but had he looked at it with unclouded eyes Kohimu would have laughed. It was nothing more than a cloth soaked in herbs that Kasai had draped over his head.

"Are you thirsty?" the Kasai-apparition asked.

"I can't take water from spirits." The sentence came out fragmented, though in Kohimu's brain it was clear and every word was enunciated perfectly. What Kasai heard was, _"I…water—spirits."_

From deeper in the healing house the healer Mijai said, "Give him water, young lady. He is hallucinating."

Kasai rose to her feet and moved toward the basin, snatching a clean cup. As she tipped the large basin up and dipped the cup into it shouts from outside made her cry out and drop the cup. She knelt and retrieved it, holding her breath to keep herself from sobbing.

Outside Masuyo was moving out of the midwife's sanctuary where Miroku and Sango had met with him. Kasai had retreated from the scene, unable to bear it, facing her sickly, delirious brother instead. At Kohimu's bedside she heard Sango crying and pleading as she understood that Masuyo was leaving. Sango's grief penetrated walls and the pelting rain. Only Kagome and Kohimu remained oblivious, sleeping or stuck in delirium as they were. Waiting on Kagome, Akisame heard the mourning even more than Kasai with her sharper ears. The young girl had shrunken, her face tight and drawn, older and graver than Kasai had ever seen it.

When Masuyo pushed the door open and entered the healer's house Mijai was the only one to gasp, revealing his surprise. The old man lifted his head and asked, "Boy—what's going on out there? Tell your mother she'll wake the whole village…"

Masuyo was dripping with the rain, but he made no effort to dry himself. He ducked his head to the healer, acknowledging his words. "I apologize, sir."

"You're leaving?" Akisame demanded, rising stiffly to her feet. "What happened out there?"

"I have to go with Lady Shiroihana. My father made a bargain with her."

Sitting at Kohimu's side, Kasai closed her eyes, squeezing out tears while she inwardly blessed her brother for not mentioning _why_ Miroku had made such a bargain.

Akisame growled. "Why don't you fucking kill the stupid bitch?"

Mijai made another gasping sound, astounded at the girl's language. Akisame ignored his astonishment and his glaring, focused only on Masuyo. Masuyo ignored her as well. Instead he said, "I've come to say goodbye. I won't wake Lady Kagome."

"Lady?" Akisame spluttered, gaping at the formal address. She was smart enough to understand what it meant. Masuyo was distancing himself from all of them already, before he'd even left. Her golden eyes narrowed and darted between Kasai's back and Masuyo's dripping face and hair. "What the hell is going on here? Kasai? You're going to fucking let him go, aren't you?"

Kasai lifted her head, staring at Masuyo's chest—she couldn't bring herself to see his young eyes, filled with pain. He had blue eyes, lighter than her own, and their mother's soft brown hair. In the full wetness of the rain Masuyo was as gray as a ghost, sickly like Kohimu. His blue eyes and the slick water dripping off him made him appear like a water-spirit, freshly risen, haunting them, or perhaps cursing them.

"Masu…" she choked on his name. "Let me go instead of you."

"She wants me—and Ma—Mom needs you." A childish pitch entered Masuyo's voice, setting it quavering with his emotion. He had nearly called Sango _Mama_, as if Shiroihana had turned back his age.

It was true. If Kasai left Sango would have no daughters at all. Kasai's mind spun around, searching for another solution, but there was none. She covered her face with her hands, suddenly feeling sick. She forced herself to speak. "You'll write?"

"If Lady Shiroihana allows it," he answered, drawing a shaky, shallow breath.

"Masuyo…" Akisame muttered, frowning from her spot. Her chin wrinkled while her brow furrowed with anger.

The boy strode forward and knelt at Kasai's side, facing Kohimu's motionless body. He bit his lip and reached out with his hand, tentatively touching Kohimu's shoulder. The young man tensed, breathing sharply at the touch of the boy's hand. He gave a small cry, his head rolled from side to side on the cot. His teeth chattered as he tried to speak. "…ice…"

"I hoped he'd be awake," Masuyo murmured.

"He is, a little," Kasai told him, sniffing.

Masuyo withdrew his hand, clutching it in the other. He began shivering. "When he's better, will you—will you tell him—I wish…" he stopped, struggling to breathe without sobbing. "I wish we…I wish he—that he—he could've loved me."

"Masuyo," Kasai croaked, the name broke apart with her pain. She tried to say, _"He does,_" but her lungs would not give her air.

The boy's hands twisted over one another, wringing the flesh until it turned white like snow or ice. "Maybe this—this will—maybe earn," he paused, gasping for air. "…Big Brother's respect."

Kasai reached out for him, pulling him close, but Masuyo pushed her away, his jaw clenching and his eyes narrowing with what appeared to be rage. "I must go now," he told her. The pain had vanished, the raw glimpse that Kasai, Akisame, and even dull Mijai the healer had seen of the boy's heart closed. Masuyo buried despair with responsibility and duty, but his eyes oozed tears as steadily as water bubbling from a spring.

"You'll tell Kohimu when he wakes up?" Masuyo asked.

Kasai nodded, her shoulders quaking but her lips pinched together in silence. He had been a boy when they set out to hunt Iruka, but now Kasai saw the man inside him, bursting free. She tried to reach out to him once more, this time not in the hug she would give to a child or a female friend, but in the way she would bid an older brother or father goodbye.

Masuyo watched as she clasped one of his gray, chilled hands in her own and squeezed. The siblings locked gazes, violet on blue, for a moment, then Masuyo looked away as Kasai spoke. "Brother—you'll be in my thoughts—everyday. Everyday." In spite of herself the tears flowed, the burning began in her chest, a pressure so great she thought she might explode. She had not always treated him as she should have, but Masuyo had been the brother she was more likely to train with. She had helped him gather stones on the hillsides around the demon slayer's village. She had hugged him when Kohimu teased him and helped bandage cuts and scrapes he collected while playing.

Now he was wounded in a place she couldn't bandage, and in a place in life that she couldn't prepare him for.

Kasai released his hand and covered her mouth, closed her eyes. _I'll never forget your bravery, Little Brother._ She wanted to speak the words aloud, but when she opened her eyes Masuyo was already on his feet and hurrying for the door. Akisame yelped, trying one last time to stop him with words, but the boy was gone, vanished back into the rain, just like a water spirit.

Kasai lowered her face toward the floor, crying in silence.

* * *

When the sun rose the morning after Masuyo's departure, the clouds had broken enough that the rain lightened to a faint drizzle. The sunlight peaked through the clouds at the horizon, bright crimson red.

And in the midwife's home Sango began to bleed.

* * *

In that same moment of time, Masuyo was doubling over, retching. The gold-red sunlight cut in below the clouds, coloring the hills and mountains, banishing the opaqueness of morning fog.

One moment Masuyo, Saya, and Shiroihana had been traveling at a sluggish but steady pace through the forest in the predawn blue-black gloom. Then, as the sun began to rise, Shiroihana grew restless and impatient with their pace. She had called Saya to her and held the young girl close to her. Masuyo lingered several feet away, as if ready to run from her. His face was ghostly, his body wracked with shivers. His blue eyes gleamed like aquamarine glaciers.

"You too, boy," Shiroihana summoned him, lifting one clawed hand up in his direction.

"What?" Masuyo asked. He watched as Saya snuggled into her grandmother's side, hiding herself under the white fluff, fearlessly touching the fur and squeezing it to test its plushness. Even in the rain the fluff looked dry…

"Come here," Shiroihana repeated. She lowered one hand and beckoned. A wicked witch, a sorceress, an enchantress, Masuyo stared and felt his knees lock up. Rage swelled inside.

"No."

Shiroihana's golden eyes narrowed with disgust. "Disappointing, boy. At least you are not afraid." She made a small motion, a tiny listing toward him, and Masuyo braced himself for a fighting and perhaps even death. There was no time for his hand to close around the sling or draw out a stone to arm it before she was on him.

Masuyo made a quick, sharp sound of surprise and then the air around his face flushed white. He felt warmth flush across his face, a gentle whispering touch. _Her fur…?_ But then his heart pounded, beating on the inside of his ribs, the air rushed out of his lungs as his diaphragm moved. He sensed motion, as if he were flying through the air. He moved his head and the vertigo overwhelmed him, sending stomach acids flooding into his throat and mouth. He was weightless, floating, his arms and legs tingled.

_I'm dying_, he thought and then it was over. The whiteness cleared suddenly and Masuyo found himself doubled over with the sun hitting his face. He vomited into the wet grass and loose dirt at his feet.

"How interesting," Shiroihana muttered somewhere behind him. "Humans truly are weak beasts."

"Lady Shiroihana," Saya whimpered, shivering against her grandmother's side. "What's wrong with him?"

Masuyo recovered slowly, standing upright and gripping his stomach. He kicked dirt and grass into the little puddle of stomach acids and tried very hard not to look into it. The paleness of a noodle he'd managed to swallow without chewing made him think of worms or maggots on a corpse. He lifted his eyes and took in the world, realizing that it was not the dark forest of moments before. His body convulsed with shivering.

"Where are we?" his voice was dry from vomiting. He cleared his throat and spat, wiping his mouth with quivering hands.

"Turn around, boy," Shiroihana ordered.

Masuyo twisted around at the waist and his mouth fell open with shock. They were on the edge of a mountainside that sloped up into a thick white fog. Although he couldn't see it through the fog at the top, Masuyo recognized it as Kagetsu Palace. A long wooden stairway stretched up the mountainside with a white stone wall decorating the sides. Masuyo remembered the hardness of those stairs on his feet and his hands when he'd stumbled as he, his father, and Kagome scrambled up them. In the dawning sunlight there were no ghostly orbs to light the path and no orange-fired torches, but Masuyo saw the dark shapes of Shiroihana's undead guards lining the sides of the stairway.

"How did we get here?" Masuyo looked to Shiroihana and Saya.

"I transported you here, boy."

"My name is Masuyo," he snapped, glaring.

Shiroihana smirked and swatted Saya, pushing her toward the stairway. "Go on, Saya. Lead our guest up to the palace, will you?"

"Yes, Lady Shiroihana." Saya sprang forward obediently with suddenness that startled Masuyo, making him cringe. Saya paused in front of him, her face creased with concern. "I wouldn't…" she stopped, blinking and then rephrased her words, "This one would never harm Masuyo-sama."

Behind them Shiroihana snorted derisively and moved forward with tiny steps as she reprimanded her granddaughter. "Saya—he is beneath you. Do not address him that way."

Saya frowned, still facing Masuyo so that Shiroihana would not see the expression. Her gaze flicked shyly to Masuyo and then away as she answered Shiroihana: "Yes, my lady."

"Start walking boy, we are in a hurry."

Masuyo glared past Saya to Shiroihana. His jaw clenched when she smiled at him, amused by his rage. As a lone human and demon slayer he could never intimidate her. Shiroihana knew no fear, but Saya was vulnerable and always would be. Masuyo recalled the way Inuyasha had held Saya by the shoulder and the arm, setting the hanyou girl against Shiroihana to control her. Of course Inuyasha couldn't harm Saya, but it provided some measure of protection…

Dark thoughts spun in his mind, emerging and forming in a second. _I could use the dagger._ He knew the feeling of the rough bone knife, small enough to be discreet, but sharpened to a needle's point by Tisoki's expertise. _Put it to her throat._ If Shiroihana valued her granddaughter's life she would relinquish her hold on him, setting Masuyo free. In return Masuyo would gladly release Saya…

A warm, gentle touch startled Masuyo, making him flinch and blink with surprise. Saya had taken his hand. She tugged on it and Masuyo felt the prick of her claws, as sharp as his knife but probably stronger than his bone. The knife was from a demon's forearm, whittled away and treated in an acid bath to remove hidden toxins, but Saya's living claws would be stronger than the dead bone.

And looking at Saya, _really_ looking at her for the first time since Shiroihana had abducted him, Masuyo saw nothing but sweetness. Pulling out the knife, placing it on her smooth, pale skin would be like smothering a baby. Saya hadn't resisted Inuyasha's hold; she had actually tried to defend him. She was not his tool for escape, she was his living ally.

Saya made out the strangeness of his stare, the intensity of it. Her hold on his hand faltered. "Masuyo? What's wrong?"

The thought of harming her vanished, deeply buried and banished. He shook his head and averted his gaze. "Nothing."

Shiroihana had walked past them. Her kimono fluttered around her legs and the white fluff bounced around her shoulders and thighs. Her white hair flowed over her shoulders, a frozen waterfall. As Masuyo turned to follow the inuyoukai woman with Saya at his side, he struggled with the hate inside, only to find grief hiding beneath it. He bowed his head the further they climbed, struggling to breathe as his legs ached with the exertion and his lungs burned with mourning. He wanted to sob but the possibility of looking weak in front of Shiroihana made him swallow the emotion, tucking it away in favor of encouraging the hate. Hate did not cry, it empowered.

Masuyo would never succumb to Shiroihana's will without a fight. He would find every way he could to inconvenience her—but he would never stoop to indecency by using Saya. _I will honor my family by acting with honor, _he vowed.

At the top of the long, seemingly unending stair, wreathed in the misty fog, Masuyo lifted his head and saw a shape appear. He recognized it as belonging to Sesshomaru as they drew nearer. He felt a surge of hope at the sight. If Sesshomaru was waiting to see his mother perhaps it was to stop her from bringing him inside. He had resisted her plan before when she'd first suggested it in the palace. Would he exert his power as a patriarch over her at last?

Saya pushed past Masuyo before they reached the top of the stair. "Father!" She wrapped her arms around Sesshomaru's waist, stepping on her tiptoes to do it. Sesshomaru lowered one clawed hand and brushed at her hair, glancing briefly away from Shiroihana and Masuyo. Masuyo saw no trace of a smile on the lord's face when he met his daughter, but had he been experienced in reading the stoic inuyoukai's expressions he would've noticed the upward twitch of his lips and the softening of his eyes.

What Masuyo _did_ notice was the way that Sesshomaru's golden eyes narrowed on Shiroihana as the inuyoukai woman came to a stop before him. She barked out an order to Masuyo, "Bow, boy!"

Masuyo stepped forward and presented himself to Sesshomaru with a minimal duck of his head that he hoped irritated Shiroihana and Sesshomaru alike. If both the inuyoukai found him to be displeasing perhaps they would send him away with disgust. Masuyo's fingers twined together, wrenching down until his flesh bleached white with pressure.

"Mother," Sesshomaru said, ignoring Masuyo completely.

"Yes?" Shiroihana interrupted him with cheerful eagerness. "What is it? How is Lady Ginrei? Was Hanone pleased to see her mother?"

Sesshomaru ignored the barrage of questions, just as he failed to acknowledge Masuyo's presence. One hand stayed on his daughter's head, idly touching her soft white hair, the other hand was invisible in the depths of his sleeve. He glared at Shiroihana, refusing to be distracted. "Why have you brought the human? What purpose could you have for him, Mother?"

Shiroihana laughed, light and trilling. "This boy is not _mine!"_

Masuyo risked rising out of his small bow to watch both the inuyoukai's faces as they spoke about him. If Sesshomaru was surprised by Shiroihana's announcement he didn't show it. He remained impassive, unimpressed. He said only one word, questioning her: "Mother?"

"The boy belongs to you and Saya, Sesshomaru. Do with him as you please." Shiroihana strode past Sesshomaru, chuckling to herself. The white fog encapsulated her, hiding her from Masuyo's eyes, but her voice flowed out of it back to them with a final thought. "But don't let him go, Sesshomaru. Your daughter could use a bodyguard and the boy is fearless."

Sensing Sesshomaru's uncertainty in his continued gaze and prolonged silence, Masuyo fell to his knees before the inuyoukai lord, giving him a full, clumsy bow. The wood walkway that surrounded the palace was cold and wet when he touched his forehead to its surface. "Please Lord Sesshomaru—I beg you to allow me to return to my family. I would be of no service to you; I would only get in the way…"

"You have a sister?" Sesshomaru asked him, suddenly.

Masuyo stuttered, startled by the question and disturbed with Sesshomaru's interest in Kasai. "Yes, my lord."

"I will allow you to return to your family in exchange for your sister then."

Masuyo gnashed his teeth together and closed his eyes, battling down the rush of grief that constricted his chest. "I can't—I have only one sister and my mother needs her…"

"Then you will stay as a companion for Saya."

Masuyo kept his forehead on the walkway, hiding his face as it quivered with loss. "Yes," he choked out, "…yes lord."

* * *

A day after Masuyo had gone with Shiroihana and Sango had at last lost the stubborn baby from her womb Kohimu's fever broke for the last time. His body glistened with sweat and his skin flushed, but he didn't shiver anymore and his mind cleared. His body had defeated the infection, containing it. His wounds had started to heal. For the first time he discerned reality from the delirious fiction of his mind. He recognized his caretaker as Kasai with a rush of surprise intermixed with confusion and relief.

"Kasai?" he croaked at her. It seemed he had awoken before and received the news that they had found her and she was safe, but his consciousness had faded in and out, along with his memory. Had that been reality or fiction?

She looked dour, her eyes downcast and puffy. Why was she crying?

"Inuyasha found you," Kohimu realized, frowning against the sweat at his brow and the weakness in his chest and limbs.

"Yeah," Kasai murmured. Her violet eyes lifted to his face and she smiled wanly. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," he replied, closing his eyes. He had slept uncountable hours and even his sickened, delirious mind understood that a long time had come and gone since he had been clearheaded and well. "How long have I…?"

"We've been here about two weeks," Kasai told him.

While Kohimu absorbed her words with a groan, Kasai sat up, her spine stiffening as she went on with her explanation of the last two weeks that he had missed. "Dad found me with the help of Sesshomaru's mother. Without her help I—I would have died. In exchange for her help, she—she demanded—she took Masuyo hostage…" her words died as she started to sob.

_Perhaps I am dreaming._ "What?" he repeated, unable to keep the irritation from his voice.

Kasai went on, strangled by her grief but still talking: "Before he left he told me I had to tell you—he told me he wishes you could've loved him."

In spite of his weakness, Kohimu felt anger flare up inside, as bright as the moon in the night sky. "What is that nonsense? What are you talking about?" Fleetingly he thought: _this is a joke and I will thrash them both for it as soon as I can move…_

"He hopes—you'll be proud." Kasai covered her face, hiding from him through her fingers, and drew a long, deep breath. Her shoulders shook as she tried to restrain her grief.

"Stop," Kohimu blurted, feeling his chest tighten and heat spread through his throat. "Stop it…"

He closed his eyes and turned away from her. The movement took great effort, making him grunt and bite the inside of his cheek. Kasai's crying increased, turning into hungry gasps. Kohimu suddenly longed for the deliriousness of his fever to return, for the fiery touch of the dragon's breath, scalding his wounds and his flesh. He fought, gnashing his teeth, but the tears oozed out anyway. He didn't understand all of what Kasai had said, but her emotion couldn't be feigned. He replayed Kasai's explanation, struggling to make sense of it.

"Kasai—is Masuyo alive?"

Her answer was almost whimpered. "Yes."

_But we won't see him again._ She didn't say it, but Kohimu picked out that idea from her tears. The relayed message struck him like a physical blow. _I wish you could've loved me, Big Brother._

Kohimu's body shook and then he gave in, sobbing. He mourned not only his brother's loss, but also his own cruelty, his unthinking harshness. _Of course I loved him._

But it was too late for him to tell Masuyo that. Too late to correct the mistakes. It had almost been too late for him to redeem himself with Kasai too…

"Kasai," he blurted thickly, "you know I loved him right? I was cruel and he didn't deserve it, but that's how older brothers are…I wanted to teach him how to be strong, how to be a man…"

_How shameful,_ he thought, _I can't speak and face her._ His back burned. He wanted to rollover but pride and honor made his body rigid and his physical weakness made the task hard. _But I must speak._

"I knew," Kasai answered him.

Hurriedly, as if he would interrupt her, Kohimu added, "And you Kasai—I was so afraid, when you were away. I've been cruel to you too, but it was wrong. I just wanted to protect you."

"I understand." Her voice trembled, just as her hand did as it fell on his bare arm, squeezing encouragingly as their mother often did to reassure them. "It's hard to be Big Brother to us all…"

"That's not true."

Kasai ignored him. "Write to Masuyo when you're well, Kohimu. I know he'd love to hear it—but don't worry now, okay?" She swallowed hard, trying to push aside her own grief. "You need to get better, not worry, okay?"

Kohimu stayed silent, his eyes closed, his heart heavy and aching inside as if the arrow he had pierced Osore and Hato had actually punctured his own flesh. He would write to Masuyo, praying that he was allowed to receive letters, and he would vow to curtail his harshness, to become fatherly, to encourage rather than be a competitive brother. He remembered Nobe, the boy they had found with Kagome who wanted to be a demon slayer, his first apprentice. _I will start with him,_ he promised. _Then Riki and Koudo…_

_

* * *

This was a bit of a short chapter because I've been busy and depressed about writing off and on so I haven't written as much as I wanted or could have but I wanted to get something out to you all, just something. So here it is. Hopefully it is pleasing! I am excited about writing the next chapters of Return though, just so everyone knows, and Masuyo's part here was alot of fun to write too. Of course Masuyo is still a little irked about it all, but as time goes on I'm sure he would become more comfortable there with Saya. But he'll never forgive Shiroihana, I'll see to that. That could (if you guys would read it) lead to funny stories where Masuyo and Shiroihana face off verbally. I dunno something like that, I might be partial to Masuyo-Saya myself so...anyone else have a take on that? _


	34. Healing

A/N: I had a friend who miscarried a baby, or at least what her body thought was a baby, recently. It nearly killed her. Emotionally and physically. She bled and bled and bled I guess. I knew miscarriages could be severe, but I had always guessed that they were more painful emotionally than physically. I was wrong. Of course for my friend there was what sounded like a bizarre situation possibly linked to cancer, at least according to my mom the nurse. Something about an empty sac or a bad placenta. Placenta won't stop growing, drawing out blood, but there is no baby to feed and the body starts rejecting and reabsorbing…I dunno. I don't know how far along she was…Anyway, this chapter is a little longer than last time, and a LOT happier I think...

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last Chapter: Masuyo said goodbye to everyone, leaving a message for Kasai to pass onto Kohimu when he woke up. The grief of losing Masuyo to Shiroihana jolted Sango and made her lose the baby that she had barely managed to save before. Masuyo met with Sesshomaru at the top of the stairway into Kagetsu palace. Shiroihana revealed that she didn't acquire Masu for herself, she plans to conscript him into Saya's service. So Masu is actually Sesshomaru's hostage. Masu pleaded with Sess to go back to his family, but Sess would only agree if Masu went back in exchange for Kasai. Masu refused, sentencing himself into Sess's care. Meanwhile Kohimu at last woke up, beginning his recovery in earnest. Kasai delivered Masu's parting message and Kohimu hated hearing it, realizing that he had been too harsh with Masu and Kasai and Riki and Koudo. He vowed to change himself, to become nurturing rather than competitive with his younger siblings.

* * *

**Healing**

The sun slid below the horizon with gravid slowness until the moment when it touched the horizon, then it sank readily like a ship taking on water. The color of the light changed as it sank, growing fainter and somehow desperate, like a siren's song when she fears the sailors are getting away. From gold to red and pink, and at last orange and yellow as it sputtered and died. The sun extinguished itself, but the clouds around the horizon kept their colors for a time, like coals left in a fire after the flames have died.

Kasai watched the dusk fall sitting on a little flat rock. She had wandered into the field where Masuyo had practiced throwing stones with his sling.

Kagome had long ago recovered, but only within the last few days had she convinced Inuyasha to let her out of bed. She had left the healing house after Masuyo had gone to tend to Sango. Kohimu was weak but able to walk. He ate with vigor and had already taken up his bow, trying to stretch the cord, to work his forgotten muscles back into health. Kasai marveled at the change in her older brother. His eyes were clouded with fatigue, but also loss and regret. He was too proud to admit his shame and regret in any length but Kasai felt his gaze on her a lot. He was solemn in a way he had never been before. The arrogance of boyhood had been carved out of him by grief.

It was Sango now whose health kept them from traveling, but the demon slayer had always been strong. She fell into spells of crying at times, but it was not with physical pain. Her thoughts stayed with Masuyo, wondering how he was, where he was, and if she would get to see him again. The unborn baby, a water baby, had little mass, nothing recognizably human. Kasai and Kagome helped the midwife cleanse Sango and prepare the herbs that would slow and then stop the blood flow, and then the teas to calm her and ease the pain.

Sango spent most of her time sleeping, curled in an uncomfortable ball, dreaming. She saw Masuyo running away through some mist, following the inuyoukai woman Shiroihana. But then Shiroihana's white hair turned black and suddenly she was Naraku. And then Masuyo changed into Kohaku. Decades separated her now from Naraku and Kohaku, but her subconscious would not forget. Now Naraku haunted her dreams, making her relive the moment when Kohaku had killed all of the other demon slayers, including their father. But now she saw Kohaku's form wavering, turning into Masuyo. And it wasn't her father and other demon slayers, cousins, that were dying. It was all of her children. She had taken her father's place. As she lay dying, with cramping pains tearing into her belly, she saw Kasai fighting, trying to stop Masuyo as the sickle slashed Tisoki in half and severed Kohimu's arm. She cried out, whimpering their names, disturbing Kagome and Kasai as they looked after her.

Those calls stayed with Kasai. She wondered what her mother was seeing, what horrors Sango carried inside. She knew that her uncle had disappeared after the death of Naraku. She knew that Kohaku had, while under a spell, killed her grandfather and all of the other demon slayers in that party. And he had almost taken Sango's life too, but she was too stubborn and too strong to die.

Kasai could never imagine living with such pain—until now. She watched her mother with new admiration and the first bit of true hope sprouting inside her. If Sango could survive and go on to live happily, to bring up her family so successfully in spite of such horrific loss, then Kasai could go on as well.

She prayed for her mother as the sun slipped below the sea of the horizon, melting into it like sugar on a tongue. Kasai prayed also for the child that Sango had lost, that it would accept its unfortunate fate and leave Sango quickly but with as little pain as possible.

Distracted by her prayers and her thoughts, Kasai almost missed the crunch of gravel that rose from behind her. As she lifted her head they stopped, revealing the shyness of her visitor and his close attention to detail. It wouldn't have been Kagome or Akisame as they wouldn't have paused when she noticed their approach. It wasn't her father or any of her brothers because they would have louder footsteps. That left Koinu or Shippo or potentially Nobe, but he never left Tisoki's side so that seemed unlikely.

Before she could guess who it was, her visitor spoke for himself. "You don't mind if I sit with you, do you?"

She smiled but didn't turn to look at Koinu. "There aren't any more good rocks to sit on and the grass is a little wet…"

The quiet footsteps resumed, scratching on the grass. He was louder now, unafraid of startling her or of being rejected. The young man settled on the grass next to her, touching it with his clawed hands to test out exactly how wet it was. He grimaced when his fingers came back sticky and damp. "Huh," he grunted in a mixture of irritation and interest.

While Koinu self-consciously felt around the grass and fidgeted like an uncomfortable cat, Kasai watched him out of the corner of her eye, thinking. Koinu had tried to save her, to pull her back from despair very early by telling her that he loved her in a roundabout way. Although it was exactly like Koinu to say nearly anything to cheer someone he cared about up, Kasai knew there was an element of truth in it too. Guilt plagued her. Her mind was scattered, struggling to exist day-to-day, but she longed to straighten it all out, to find peace.

_They gave up so much for me._ She turned her face back to the darkening horizon, closing her eyes to keep the tears hidden. Masuyo's face appeared before her, concentrating as he knelt in the field and selected a stone and then his young face rumpled with the agony of goodbye, of leaving the message for Kohimu. _"I wish you could've loved me."_ was that what Koinu was thinking of her? Was it what he would think as soon as their families parted on the road, hers heading for the mountains and the demon slayer village, Koinu's for the east coast.

When Koinu spoke, apparently having acclimatized to the wetness of the grass, Kasai blinked, startled. Koinu was smiling at her warmly but sympathy shimmered in his blue eyes.

"What did you say?" she asked.

His ears flicked in a way that struck Kasai as being jovial. "I'm glad you're carrying Burikko. It belongs with you."

A complex series of emotions passed through her, making Kasai frown. She looked down at her hip, realizing that she was in fact wearing the small sword. "Oh," she muttered.

Koinu leaned closer to her, trying to peek into her face. "You don't agree with me, do you." It wasn't a question.

"Koinu," Kasai whispered, her voice croaked. She gave it more volume as she went on. "…it's useless."

He cocked his head to one side, perplexed but immediately disagreeing. "No it's not. It's a beautiful sword. It's well-balanced and the perfect size for you."

"I meant—I haven't been able to protect myself or my family or anyone with it." Her lips curled with remaining rage and grief. "I couldn't stop that demon woman from taking Masuyo."

"Stop blaming yourself," Koinu scolded her. His ears flattened atop his head. "You're always so sad." He bit his lower lip and his brow creased with concentration. "Kasai, would it help—maybe, if you wanted—you could tell me about what happened."

Kasai stared at the horizon, trying to block out those very memories that Koinu had mentioned. Her chin quivered. She said nothing and the silence dragged out.

Koinu broke it, stammering nervously. "It was only a suggestion. I mean a bad one. I got the idea from Mom."

She knew without looking at him and without the presence of light to see it, that Koinu was blushing. She could hear it in his voice and the long years they had spent growing up and training together had taught her his habits. He was boyish, gentle, and sweet to the core, beautiful in a way Kasai hadn't seen anywhere else. She concentrated on that innocence, his charm, and felt the horrors lurking in her memories recede, replaced by memories of laughter that she had shared with Koinu, Shippo, Akisame, and her brothers.

"I guess in her era there are people that listen to other people's problems. It's a service. Mom called them sigh-co-something. I forgot it, it was a weird word." He wrinkled his nose, as if the word had smelled bad. "She said the people that listen like that get a lot of money to do it, and it helps people to be able to talk about their troubles."

Kasai shook her head slowly. "I don't want to go back there, Koinu." She turned and tried to make out his face in the gathering dark. "I just want to forget it and be happy again."

After another moment of silence, Koinu said, "Do you want to spar?"

In the black of her memories, Kasai saw herself striking her father, stealing his staff and then battering Kagome with it. She saw Inuyasha trapped beneath her, heard his screams as her teeth tore into his neck.

"No—_no…"_

"It will be fun," Koinu murmured, gently. "Your sword against my claws."

"No," Kasai repeated, more firmly. She realized she was shaking and took a deep, silent breath to stop it. Koinu would have seen though, he would know the thought upset her. He would leave her alone.

Koinu surprised her. "Kasai," he called her name gently, making her turn her head to look toward him though she could only see his white hair and the triangles of his dog ears. "If you never spar again, how can you move on? How can you be a demon slayer?"

Kasai said nothing, but she barely dared to breathe, caught between agreeing with Koinu's observation and resisting out of remaining terror. The rustle of Koinu's clothes startled her. She gasped when she felt his cool, moist hand land on her wrist, tugging slightly.

"Spar with me—then you can teach me how to carve in front of Kohimu and Tisoki." He chuckled lightly. "You can humiliate me. It will be fun, I promise."

She didn't resist, though it wasn't what she wanted, as Koinu pulled her to her feet and led her away from the rock to where the ground was flatter in the clearing. He chose a spot and dusted off his hakama, grumbling under his breath about the moisture from the grass. Kasai couldn't see any detail in the darkness, only the halo of Koinu's hair and the gleam of his eyes told her where he was visually.

"You have an advantage," she observed numbly.

"I always do," Koinu reminded her. "But you used to beat me all the time."

"You let me beat you," she mumbled. She closed her eyes and saw his face in the daylight, lit by the sun, glowingly happy. _Let him always be that way, _she prayed. She had seen the stark anger in his face when she had first offered to teach him to carve, insulting his pride, but it was more than that too. Koinu had stretched out his neck for her, willing to have her chop it off if she felt inclined. He would let her lop off his head if it would make her feel better. He had always been that way. Every wrestling match that he pretended to lose, every game of tag where he protected her or let her get away, and every sparring match that he allowed her to win, just barely.

The tenderness she felt for him tightened her chest, and suddenly she realized she had loved him since they were tiny children. He was the perfect brother and she had worshipped him while she competed with him, teasing him, taunting him…He was a brother and he was…he was…

She remembered the redness of his blush on the day that she had kissed him. He was adorable but the memory filled her with shame. She had stolen that moment from him against his will. She had started loving him before either of them were ready, she had mistreated him, teasing him because she didn't know how to stop being his sister and start being his—his—

"Hah!" Koinu barked. The sparring had started.

Kasai saw his form, a shadow flanked by a halo of white hair that he'd tied back, rushing forward. His feet thumped over the ground. She drew her sword without thinking about her failure to save Masuyo from Shiroihana or Kagome from Master Dani.

She used Burikko like a pole, blocking Koinu's slash. His claws clanged on the metal, making it shriek. Kasai gritted her teeth at the sound.

Koinu dropped into a roll and hopped back out of her reach. When he faced her again Kasai saw the moisture from the grass coating his back and arms. "Your turn!" he shouted.

She sprinted for him but Koinu leapt backward, evading her swipe. Burikko sang as it cut through the air. Before Kasai could recover from her attack Koinu had pivoted to a position behind her. He moved in close, reaching for her sword arm. Kasai twisted and elbowed him but Koinu had already jarred her arm, dislodging the sword.

The spar dissolved into a scuffle. Kasai kicked at Koinu's feet. He started to fall but latched onto her, taking her down with him. They rolled, entwined, for a few feet, then Koinu separated himself and rose back up into a fighting stance. Kasai followed after him without pausing to catch her breath. She ran at him and then lifted her leg in an arc to kick him in the chest but Koinu anticipated her move and whirled out of the way. As he went he knocked her out of balance, sending her sprawling for the grass. She braced for impact, but it never came.

Koinu had caught her, rather than letting her fall. He pulled her back onto her feet and then skittered sheepishly away from her, as if he expected her to strike him for helping her. Kasai saw his white ears flick in the dark. "Is that letting you win?" he asked.

"No," she panted. "Thank you for catching me."

They sparred a second time, longer and slower now that their bodies had warmed up. It was a dance of blows, parries, and steps. They worked over the ground. Kasai tried to maneuver her way back to where she had dropped Burikko. At first Koinu fought her, keeping her away from the sword with his own attacks, but eventually their dance brought them to Burikko. When she was close enough to her sword, Kasai cart-wheeled to pick it up. One hand grabbed the sword while she struck out into the air with both feet to keep Koinu away.

With Burikko she kept Koinu further back. She thwacked him with the side of the blade when he came in too close and didn't stop her with his claws on the metal. Koinu danced out of her reach, taunting her, goading her. Kasai lashed out only when she was certain that the blade would come close, but not actually touch him. She enjoyed catching Koinu's clothing, a sleeve or a pant leg. Koinu darted in close, narrowly escaped, and then tried to get around her sword to touch her back or another unprotected area. He kept his hand clenched to avoid cutting her with his claws.

Then Koinu thought he had her. He leaped, using his advantage as part inuyoukai. The leap confused Kasai, giving him just enough time to land and reach for her. Kasai turned before he could press his fist into her back to tell her that he was won the match, but Burikko whipped through the air, coming too fast. Koinu instinctively slashed at the metal to block with his claws, but his hand was too close to Kasai.

His claws caught the fabric of her robe and it screamed as the fibers tore apart. Kasai cried out with surprise. She dropped the sword before it could clank on Koinu's claws.

"Are you hurt?" Koinu asked, nearly shouting with alarm. "I'm so sorry!"

Breathing hard, Kasai didn't answer. She felt the night air through the tear in her robe, cutting through one shoulder and over to one sleeve. His claws had missed her skin by fragments of an inch, but Kasai only heard the pain in his voice, the terror at the thought of harming her. The tenderness she'd felt for him before swelled inside her.

"Kasai?" Koinu asked, still worried. His ears laid flat on his head.

She answered at last, "I'm fine." But tears filled her eyes and overflowed. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his chest.

"It's okay," Koinu reassured her, stroking her hair like a child. "You're safe—I'm so glad you're all right. We won't do this again…"

She tried to shake her head, tried to tell him that it wasn't the sparring, but words failed her. _I'm fine,_ she thought and remembered her mother's strength. _I'm going to be fine. I'm not alone. I'm going to get better._ She took in the sharp smell of Koinu's clothes, musty from the outdoors and cooking fires and beneath it a faint smell, his sweat, surprisingly pleasant. _I'm going to get better._

_

* * *

  
_

Sango was not completely recovered when they left the village at last. The decision to travel came out of a mixture of Inuyasha's mounting impatience and Sango's own desire to return to her village and see her youngest sons. The journey would be slow to accommodate Sango and Kohimu's weakness, but none of them wanted to wait any longer—except for Koinu. The pup wasn't besotted with the village itself, rather it was concern for Sango, who he knew by scent was still bleeding somewhat, and a desire not to part with Kasai.

Kasai was teaching him to carve, a task that Koinu wasn't fond of, but he did it because it gave Kasai something to do with him, and that seemed to be healing her. She smiled at him more often and risked gazing at him as she had once done so fearlessly. Koinu followed her as loyally as a shadow, sleeping near her, eating with her, and performing many of the same chores. Traditionally he couldn't help care for Sango because it was considered impure, but Koinu stayed near to the midwife's home waiting for Kasai to come out. When the traveling started the walking might not be enough to distract Kasai's mind and it would upset the routine Koinu had established in following her, but the day came when they left the village anyway. There was nothing Koinu could do to delay it.

They spent very little time traveling. A few short hours of walking would be all they accomplished in a day before breaking to let Sango and Kohimu rest.

Kohimu grew stronger with each day, relishing the physical activity, but he stayed quieter. The arrogance did not return. He practiced with the bow and allowed Nobe to try stringing it and notching a practice arrow. Nobe had the poise and concentration of an archer. Kohimu decided that he would apprentice Nobe as an archer, a move that stunned Kasai and Tisoki. Kohimu had always guarded his craft before, unwilling to let Masuyo train in it when he also showed a talent for it.

Sango meanwhile struggled to go on. She was pale, anemic from the loss of blood. Inuyasha became her physician during the earliest parts of their journey when she was at her weakest. He carried her on his back to let her conserve strength. He ordered Akisame and Shippo to find water for her to drink or bathe and taught Kasai, Kagome, and Koinu to look for certain herbs that would help Sango's body speed the production of blood cells. He joined Tisoki and Nobe, and Miroku to hunt for fresh meat to give Sango protein and iron then helped them prepare it and grind the herbs that Kagome, Kasai, and Koinu had found.

Sango protested the special treatment but she never turned it away. She napped with Kohimu when they stopped and drank every foul tasting concoction that Inuyasha made for her. The constant dizziness, the muscle cramping, her paleness and fatigue, slowly diminished. She slept less often and began walking on her own during the day rather than riding on Inuyasha's back.

The terrain grew steadily more mountainous as they headed east. Shippo took the lead position as a scout, ranging over the road in his full fox form. Akisame sometimes joined him but more and more she chose to stay close to her mother and father. Her golden eyes strayed to where Koinu walked with a mixture of irritation and sadness. It wasn't long before she started to complain about her brother's preferred spot with Kasai and her brothers. To be courteous she waited until Sango was walking on her own so that the demon slayer mother wouldn't hear her bitter complaints.

"He's so dumb. I want to hit him," she growled.

"That's not very nice," Kagome sighed. "Your brother is very smart and you shouldn't want to hit family members." She walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Inuyasha while Akisame tramped behind them by only a foot, tailing them loyally, so close she frequently stepped on their heels.

"But Mom! He's _always_ over there! It's fucking ridiculous."

"Don't use that kind of language," Kagome scolded, but without passion. She had halfway accepted that her daughter wasn't like her in personality. She had inherited Inuyasha's audacity and partially his denseness. Stubbornness went without question and it came from both sides of her ancestry.

"Aki's right," Inuyasha put in, speaking for the first time. "It is fucking ridiculous. Why the hell is he back there?" he turned slightly and glanced at his son, then his eyes flew to Akisame. "And what the hell's the matter with you? Why aren't you out with Shippo hopping through the trees like one of those damned squirrel?"

Kagome snorted and started laughing. "Inuyasha! You're one to talk!"

"What?" he barked. "What do you mean?"

"I'm going to go give him a piece of my mind," Akisame announced.

"Who?" Kagome asked. "Your father or Koinu or…?"

Akisame didn't answer. She had fallen back from them, slipping between Kohimu and Miroku. Both men watched her with brief surprise, wondering why she had dropped back to their slower group.

"Hello, Akisame," Miroku murmured, nodding to her. If he had been a decade younger and his self-control much less, the monk would've gripped her arm to appear friendly, then caressed her rump. Considering whose daughter she was though, he buried the inclination and the thought immediately. Without looking forward he knew that Inuyasha was watching and listening. And at any rate Akisame was unlikely to let herself be groped. He would probably lose his hand and die of blood loss.

"Hi," she answered, glaring past him to where Sango, Kasai and Masuyo were walking.

"Is something the matter?" Miroku asked.

Akisame darted in front of him, making Miroku stumble. Kohimu steadied his father and together they stared after Inuyasha's daughter, speechless and suspicious.

She stumbled in front of Sango and Kasai, finding her way next to her brother where he walked beside Kasai. Koinu had been watching her since she had left their parents. He knew that she was coming to confront him. He could read it in the way she walked and hadn't missed her growing complaints throughout the day, or during the evenings when he sat closer to Kasai. He steeled himself for her words and tried to plan what he would say…

"Akisame," he greeted her with a small smile.

His sister answered only with a deep frown. They walked in a heavy silence. Sango shied away from her daughter and Koinu to be closer to Miroku. She struck up a conversation with Kohimu, asking how he was feeling and if he had recovered the strength to draw and hold his bow.

At last the confrontation began. Akisame attacked like a viper, without warning. She bit out, "So Koinu—what's up with you lately? Huh?"

Koinu ignored her, staring ahead, but his stride became stiff with tension.

"You're always back here," Akisame went on, goading him. "Do you like getting groped or something?"

Koinu's ears fell back with anger. He turned and glared venomously at his younger sister. "Stop making a nuisance of yourself."

"Only if you stop being an idiot!"

"Koinu." Kasai spoke, making the siblings look at her as one. Kasai was blushing and staring at the ground, watching her feet pass over the dirt of the road. "I think you should walk with your family."

"Kasai—you don't have to…" she interrupted Koinu before he could finish his thought.

"It's okay. They miss you, that's why Akisame's here." She lifted her gaze to meet his and smiled warm but sad. Her lips parted to add, _They love you too,_ but her voice betrayed her, letting out only a croaking noise.

Akisame bristled beside Koinu. "I don't miss him!" She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I just think he should be walking with us!"

"Shut up," Koinu snarled, ears laying flat. He stared at his parents walking some distance ahead, searching for any sign of what they felt. One of Inuyasha's white ears was back turned, listening to the little argument. He lowered his voice before saying, "I can walk wherever I want to…"

Akisame sputtered at his response, her face started to redden. The golden eyes narrowed. "You jerk," she hissed. "Asshole."

"Don't talk like that," Koinu snapped.

She mimicked his earlier statement: "I can talk however I want to! My brother isn't around enough to stop me."

Before Koinu could respond he felt Kasai's hands on his arm, pushing him toward Akisame. He tore his arm out of her grasp and looked at her with a wounded expression. "What are you…"

"You should go with her, Koinu. Really. It's okay. In a few more days we'll be near the slayer's village and we'll have to—we'll go different ways." Her violet eyes were sad and wet but also filled with warmth. Her long black hair, tied back loosely behind her shoulders, jostled with each step and shone brightly in the afternoon light.

"There, you have her permission," Akisame growled. She snatched her brother's arm and pulled him away from Kasai, hopping like a grasshopper. She started to babble with triumph as Koinu resigned himself to follow her. "We can go scouting together, Koinu. We'll find berries to snack on and fresh spring water. And we can race…!"

Koinu lost track of his sister's words when he craned his neck around and looked back to Kasai. She had moved to walk nearer to her mother and father but her violet eyes had followed him, the deep blue of them like a glassy lake reflecting a setting sun's light. The warmth had faded from her face, but the sadness remained in her beautiful eyes. Koinu pulled on his sister's grip but she didn't let go and Kasai, noticing his struggle, turned her gaze away.

Koinu's stomach tightened as he too turned away at last, resigning himself to his sister's care. This brief goodbye was nothing really, but already Koinu's mind filled with the reality of what was coming. Sango and Miroku would take their family to the slayer's village inland, in the mountains, but Inuyasha would head more for the coast, for the growing settlement that would one day become Tokyo.

They would be separated again. It struck Koinu as though he was a cherry tree and the clouds had come rolling over the sun. No—that was wrong. He was the sunlight and Kasai was the cherry tree. Was she strong enough to last through the winter months to blossom in the spring?

Koinu didn't want to risk it.

* * *

Throughout the day Koinu accompanied his sister. They ranged ahead to scout with Shippo ad leaped through the trees. The freedom of the wind in his hair and the myriad of scents in the forest invigorated Koinu. In spite of his worrying for Kasai the pup found his time with his sister comforting and pleasant, but occasionally the sight of his sister's long black hair would jolt him into seeing Kasai in her place.

Whatever she had said before, Akisame had missed her brother. He had been her playmate all her life. Shippo was a fine stand-in for a brother, but since her time in the kitsune brothel Akisame preferred not to be alone with him, which was why she had stayed close to her parents throughout their trip. With Koinu back, Akisame grinned uncontrollably and babbled happily. She goaded her brother into racing with her and whooped with joy when she won. They found a patch of mushrooms some distance from the road and Akisame dug in hungrily. She snapped at Koinu when he reminded her that they should gather some for the others, but relented.

When Shippo returned with news of water the siblings agreed to wait by the little forest creek while he rushed back to the road and told Inuyasha. As the minutes lengthened after Shippo's departure, Akisame decided to make entertainment for herself.

"Fight with me," she told Koinu.

His ears perked up, pricking with surprise. "What?"

"You were always doing that with Kasai. That's where the scratches in her clothes came from, right?"

Koinu stared at the ground, suddenly ashamed and embarrassed. "Yes."

"So why waste all your time with her? I'm a better match for you. You don't have to be afraid of scratching me." She grinned, showing her pointed canines as she lifted her clawed hands up and flexed each digit individually. "Plus I won't gut you with a sword."

"I'm not sure, Aki."

"Why are you fucking sulking?" Akisame demanded, growling. "Why is Kasai so much cooler than me? Huh? Why is she so special?"

Koinu's ears fell backward. "You just don't get it. There's nothing wrong with you. I just…"

"Then fight me. Someone has to teach me how to fight and Dad won't take me seriously."

"Aki…"

His sister sprang for him, slashing with her claws, bearing her teeth in mock ferocity. Koinu ducked and scurried back from her. Akisame pivoted and lunged again letting out a small howl. "I'm going to get you!"

Koinu stood his ground this time and caught her wrists before she could strike. Akisame pulled and growled, trying to free herself, but Koinu held onto her firmly, staring into her face. A feeling of regret washed over him as he realized that Akisame was right. She didn't know how to fight properly.

"Let go!" she snarled.

"You should be able to get free on your own," Koinu sighed.

Her golden eyes widened with alarm. "But I can't…"

"Use your feet on me."

Akisame lifted her leg and kicked for Koinu's stomach. He released her to avoid the blow and jumped back to a safe distance before adopting the fighting stance once more. Akisame did the same, widening her legs and bending the knees. _At least she knows that…_

Roaring, Akisame raced for him again. This time Koinu parried her slashes rather than catching her wrists. She shredded a sleeve first, then whipped her leg around, aiming for his head. Koinu ducked easily and pushed on the knee of the leg she was using to balance on. With a yelp Akisame fell over, but just as he had with Kasai, Koinu swooped in and caught his sister by the arm and then held her waist, keeping her from hitting the ground.

Akisame growled and lashed out at him with a clenched fist, punching him in the forearm. Koinu ignored the pain and pulled her to her feet. Akisame pushed him away angrily and shouted, "Let me fall dammit! Let me get hurt!"

Koinu frowned, disturbed. He opened his mouth to apologize but Akisame didn't wait. She rushed him again. The wild halo of her black hair flew up from her shoulders as she fought wildly, but every attack was as frenzied as her hair and every one of them failed. Akisame's face twisted with disappointment but she didn't give up. Koinu started shouting instructions, guiding her attacks, shaping her technique. She took his advice without a word and soon they fought in earnest and Koinu had to concentrate on the attacks or he would lose. Akisame had a wildness in her movement, a desperation that was a lot like Inuyasha's. Her attacks were unpredictable, like a feral animal's.

By the time Shippo arrived with Inuyasha Akisame's face was coated in a thin layer of sweat and she was winded, but her golden eyes shone with triumph and a newfound confidence. When she gave her openmouthed smile to Koinu it told him better than any words she could've given him just how grateful she was. As they filled plastic water bottles and oilskin bags in the creek and carried them back for Sango and the others, Koinu watched Inuyasha's red haori and hakama and realized that he needed to talk with his father, needed to make the hanyou see reality.

* * *

In the evening when Inuyasha, Tisoki, Miroku, and Nobe ventured out to go hunting, Koinu volunteered to go with them. The extra person made the hunting party change up their tactics and exchange Nobe for Koinu.

Normally Inuyasha and Nobe worked together to hunt wild birds. Inuyasha flushed them out like a birddog while Nobe practiced using a bow to shoot them. If Nobe failed, as he often did, Inuyasha used the trees to catch a bird if he could. Miroku and Tisoki meanwhile worked with ground animals. They had successfully caught several deer and rabbits and boasted a more successful rate than Inuyasha and Nobe lately. Miroku tracked through the woods, trying to frighten a deer or a rabbit into running and the movement would set Tisoki into released his sickle. The dangerous weapon cut open the animals before they could get far.

Nobe was grateful for the change. He stayed in the camp with Kohimu, learning the art of carving while Kagome, Kasai, and Sango, if she felt up to it, cooked.

Koinu worked with Inuyasha now, moving gradually through the trees, using their eyes and noses to pick out spots where birds had roosted before and might be lingering still. There would be no arrows now, just claws, feet for speed, and teeth. Alone with his father at last, Koinu wasted little time before he started talking.

"Father—you need to teach Aki how to fight."

Inuyasha, ranging ahead of his son already, looked up with his ears swiveling. "Why are you talking? You'll scare away all the fucking birds."

"I wanted to talk to you alone, without the others hearing." Koinu forced himself to stare at Inuyasha without averting his eyes, without revealing any intimidation or uncertainty.

"Aki's fine," Inuyasha said, dismissively.

"She wants to fight. You have to teach her everything you've taught me. Teach her like she's a boy, that's what she wants." He trudged a little closer to Inuyasha, working his way around the underbrush, dipping ferns, and eager saplings. He moved with as little noise as possible, a trait that Inuyasha had instilled in him with unending training from a young age.

"She's not a boy," Inuyasha grunted, stating the obvious. "And she's not old enough."

"She _is_ old enough. She won't always have me or you to…"

Inuyasha growled, his ears laid flat. "Koinu. Enough."

Koinu flinched but pressed on in a slow, sad voice. "Why can't you see it, Dad?"

For once Inuyasha didn't bother to correct Koinu's slip in formality. His growl increased and then he cut it off, falling abruptly silent. The hanyou turned away, staring out into the forest. His ears remained flat on his head, a sign that he wasn't hearing something in the forest; he was avoiding his son's interrogation. It was too painful for Inuyasha to think that one day he might not be able to protect his wife or his daughter, or even Koinu. He had seen firsthand in the fight with Iruka how unprepared Akisame was but she had survived her abduction without a scratch, so perhaps he could dismiss his initial thought.

"You don't want her to grow up, do you?" Koinu asked, his voice soft with concern. "You can't stop it."

"Shut the hell up," Inuyasha snapped. "Do you think I'm fucking stupid?" He shifted awkwardly on his feet and crossed his arms. The silence lasted for several minutes and then Inuyasha's shoulders sagged with defeat. "I'll teach her. As soon as we get home."

"Not just with Tetsusaiga," Koinu urged. "She fights like an animal, but she has a lot of skill."

"Feh," the hanyou grunted. "Of course she does! She's my daughter! Your sister!"

In the pause that followed Koinu wondered guiltily, _will he really train her? Will he put it off again? Will it be my responsibility because he can't face the fact that she's growing up?_ Cautiously he murmured, "Dad, you know however old she gets Aki will always be your daughter. She will always love you." Suddenly a surge of emotion caught in his lungs and Koinu's voice wavered as he added, "The same goes for me. No matter where I am…"

"What the hell," Inuyasha grumbled. "Are you crying? Stop crying! Men don't cry." But the reprimand was light and Koinu felt himself smile with pride. Inuyasha had called his son a man, even though Koinu was not yet sixteen, the age when boys traditionally came of age. He was only weeks from turning sixteen, from catching up to Kasai in age. For three months they would both be sixteen, then she would reach her birthday and leave him behind again.

_Leave me behind again._ Koinu tensed, preparing to drop another bomb on his already shell-shocked father. "Father," he started, remembering to use formality to soothe his father's rankled feathers. "There was another thing I wanted to speak to you about."

"What is it?" Inuyasha asked, half sighing and half-growling.

"I want to go with—" he caught himself about to call Miroku and Sango as _aunt _and _uncle_ and corrected the inclination, fighting a blush. "—Miroku and Sango to the slayer's village. With Kasai."

"What?" Inuyasha barked. "Why the hell would you want to do that?" The hanyou closed the distance between himself and his son, getting into Koinu's face. "After badgering me about Aki you go and demand that? If you're so hell-bent on seeing Aki fight _you_ are going to help, dammit! You're not going anywhere!"

"I didn't demand anything," Koinu muttered, flinching back from his father's wrath. "I would love to help train Aki—but Kasai—"

"—will be fucking fine on her own!" Inuyasha shouted. He pulled back and snarled, curling his lips. "Why are you always with her anyway? Let her be with her family!"

Koinu blinked, realizing suddenly that Inuyasha was genuinely confused and insulted. In his mind Koinu was too young to leave home, too young to have developed an emotional tie outside of his family. He didn't understand that his son was trying to protect Kasai in the same way that Inuyasha himself watched over Kagome. Koinu had heard Kagome call Inuyasha dense before, but he hadn't quite understood how far it could extend. Socially Inuyasha could be blind.

"Dad," Koinu stammered, his ears falling back and his mind blanking. "I just…"

"You're not going anywhere but home," Inuyasha growled, turning away. "Enough talking. Let's get to work."

* * *

A/N: this story is almost over! AHHH! Okay just because I feel like putting something here rather than nothing, here's a preview for the next chapter of _Return:_

_Ginrei was answering the door outside the screen while Shiroihana spoke. The door slid open and Ginrei found herself staring down at Jaken. The imp was lying flat on the floor, his fat claws dug into the hard wood of the floor. As soon as the door was opened he began screeching at the top of his small lungs, desperate to have his message heard. _

_"Lord Sesshomaru! Do not despair! Lady Rin is no longer human! She has been transformed!"_

_Ginrei said, "What are you talking about?"_


	35. Diverging Paths

A/N: This came out a little longer than I would have liked, but hey I was enjoying it so…hopefully no one feels like their eyes will bug out before the end! Eek!

Disclaimer: I do not own the original characters.

Last Chapter: Koinu announced that he wanted to go with Kasai to the slayer's village, and he harassed IY to agree that Aki needs to be trained. IY agreed at last that Aki needs to be trained but he refused to let Koinu go with Kasai. Koinu realized that his father is dense when it comes to figuring out others' feelings. He can't see how Koinu feels. Before all that Koinu tried to comfort Kasai and ended up spending more time with her than Aki felt was fair so she approached him and asked, more like bullied because she's Aki, for him to spend time with her.

* * *

**Diverging Paths**

In the silence of their camp, Koinu couldn't sleep. Night pressed in all around him, lit only by the starlight. There was only a tiny sliver of moonlight left. The next night would be the night of the new moon. Already Koinu could feel his senses dimming. The scent of the fire, the taste of food, his hearing, and even his sight. The starlight was normally enough to illuminate the camp, but tonight Koinu lied awake beside Akisame and stared into darkness, straining every sense to pinpoint Kasai's presence. She was having a nightmare as she usually did and the thought of her internal pain made Koinu ready to growl as if he could scare away the monsters that haunted her sleeping mind and stalked her recent memories.

He was troubled also by his sister and his father. They would resent and resist his desire to stay with Miroku and Sango's family for a time to be with Kasai. He didn't want to slight them but he was determined to help Kasai and her family. They had suffered the most through the kidnapping.

There was one way to reach Inuyasha when he said no, when he was missing something because socially it passed above his head. That last chance would have to wait until morning, but Koinu was impatient and his mind spun, keeping sleep miles away.

Across the black ashes of their campfire something rustled. A shape moved faintly, sitting bolt upright. Koinu heard feminine breathing, fast and panicked. He knew at once who it was.

He called into the dark softly, "Kasai, you're safe, you're all right."

She made a small sound, a whimper of fear and fatigue. Then she found her voice. "Koinu?"

"Yes, I can't sleep."

She tried to laugh, a tiny chuckle. "I wish I didn't have to."

"I'm sorry." He watched the shadow, straining his eyes to distinguish her form. Their families around them were silent, either deep asleep or pretending to be that way. With his failing ears Koinu couldn't hear their individual heartbeats or breathing rates, especially among Kasai's family. He took a deep breath and blurted, "Kasai I want to stay with your family in the slayer's village for a while."

Her answer took a long time in coming. The wind moved through the trees, making them sigh like the sound of Akisame's contented breathing next to Koinu. Crickets and frogs sang from a nearby water source, serenading the last sliver of the moon above. The stars were dim when Koinu looked up at them and tried to find the constellations. He had heard a tale once about the Milky Way, that it was a heavenly bridge between two lovers. The lovers were bound to their spots in the sky but once a year, in the seventh month, the woman crossed the Milky Way to be with her lover. Koinu found the Milky Way easily, but the light of the individual stars was weak. If he thought hard enough about the myth and searched for their representative stars Koinu might forget that Kasai wasn't answering him, that she seemingly didn't like his plan to stay with her.

She had never told him she cared for him and she had never pushed him away. How did she feel? Could she feel anything through the thickness of her grief?

"It would never work." The four words broke the darkness apart, scattered the Milky Way.

Koinu squinted back across the dead blackness of the fire. Now, with his eyes accustomed to the starlight from above it was even harder to see Kasai. He watched a wall of featureless black. "It might, it could…"

"Your father would hate it," Kasai pointed out, whispering.

Frowning, Koinu climbed out from under the blanket he shared with Akisame. He tiptoed around the fire, following the faint sound of Kasai's breath and her scent. He knelt down next to her, ignoring the cool night air around him. Her body heat reached out to him, thrown as if from a candle. Koinu fought the desire to lean into it. He whispered to her, "I could fight him. He doesn't understand. If you wanted—if you want me to stay with you, Kasai…"

"I don't want you to fight with your family for me," she answered, her voice cracking, caught between a breathy whisper and actual words.

Koinu's body stiffened, he held his breath. _She doesn't want me to go with her._ He swallowed hard but the icy lump of pain in his throat didn't melt and didn't flow down into his stomach. _It doesn't matter,_ he forced the thoughts through his head. _It doesn't matter how she feels. I've helped her, haven't I? It doesn't matter that she doesn't care for me the same way…_

"Koinu," she breathed his name softly and for the first time Koinu smelled the staleness of her mouth from the recent sleeping. His own was no better but that tiny flaw was enough to break his spell. He cringed and his ears laid flat. He backed away from her, letting the night air close around him, blocking all hints of Kasai's close body heat little more than a foot away.

Kasai heard and saw his withdrawal. She was silent for a moment but Koinu couldn't see her face to make out the way misery made her features pull tight and her eyes darken. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I…"

"Never mind," Koinu said, shaking his head. The two words came out a little loud and Koinu's ears flicked as he heard a male sleeper groan in his sleep, perhaps beginning to waken. "Goodnight." Koinu rose to his feet and moved around the fire back to where Akisame laid, shivering because he had left her blanket askew. He slid beneath the blanket with his back to the dead fire and to Kasai. His sister's warmth was comforting but also taunting.

He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. The serenading frogs and crickets gradually dulled the pain and lulled him into dreamland.

* * *

In spite of the hardships he'd endured and the loneliness of being separated from his family, Masuyo adapted to Kagetsu palace swiftly. In the same way that a young child might readily learn to speak another language, Masuyo was able to cope in the new, sometimes unfriendly environment—but just barely.

Although she was not supposed to be his keeper or mistress, Shiroihana often issued orders to him. She forced him to do menial chores like scrubbing floors, cleaning dishes, shoes, weapons, and clothes. Every day Masuyo shared meals with Shiroihana, Saya, Hanone, and an inuyoukai woman named Ginrei who was heavily pregnant. He spoke little but listened carefully, picking out the relationships amongst these women and girls. Sesshomaru had left shortly after Masuyo's arrival, retreating back to the Western Lands, to a castle called Nejiro where he lived with Rin.

Shiroihana and Ginrei did not like one another. Ginrei was like Masuyo inside Kagetsu, a guest, perhaps even little more than a hostage. Yet unlike Masuyo she wielded enough power that she could come and go as she pleased and she understood what was happening. Masuyo remained clueless. He picked out that Hanone, Saya's younger sister, was also Ginrei's daughter. Ginrei was possessive of her daughter, always sitting close to Hanone, talking to her, touching her. Hanone was warm but aloof, reminding Masuyo greatly of Sesshomaru.

Saya followed Masuyo often. She stumbled upon him while he worked and talked to him. Sometimes she worked with him, dirtying her clothes or mussing her hair. Masuyo resisted her at first but as loneliness outgrew his bitterness he began to cherish her visits and smiled at her during the shared meals. Saya shared knowledge with him and he eventually returned the favor. One day he revealed to Saya that he could carve wood and bones into weapons or toys. Saya showed him carvings in the wood pillars and trellises lining the open-air walkways and verandahs of her grandmother's magnificent palace.

The next day he woke in the large room where he slept alone on a futon big enough for three grown men when Shiroihana came for him. He dressed in the simple but comfortable blue robes, a short-sleeved haori and loose, short pants that had been provided for him and walked to the dining room where they always ate breakfast and dinner.

Lunch and tea breaks took place in a separate tearoom that was smaller with a cozier feel. Masuyo liked the tearoom more because it was simpler. The dining room had walls painted with cranes in gold ink and trees outlined in black. Blots of purple marked where plum blossoms bloomed on the walls. The extravagance embarrassed Masuyo, who had never felt attracted to such gross displays and never would appreciate them now that he associated them with _her._ Shiroihana. His enemy.

He always sat at one corner of the table and waited until the others arrived. The routine revealed his low status in the castle as a hostage. He woke first and waited for the others, more important than himself, to finish dressing and come in their own time to sit and eat. Shiroihana arrived with Saya shortly after Masuyo sat down. Saya sat beside Masuyo and smiled warmly at him but with Shiroihana in the room Masuyo didn't lift his eyes from the wood of the table. He waited outwardly with the patience of a monk—a trait he had inherited more from his mother than from Miroku.

As Shiroihana seated herself she smiled craftily at Masuyo as she always did. The matriarch of the castle, indeed of all the Western Lands, took great delight in teasing the demon slayer boy. "Boy," she murmured, "I was most surprised to hear that you are apparently quite talented as an artist! Saya has told me that you carve toys and weapons from demon bones."

Masuyo bit the insides of both cheeks and continued staring at the table. Betrayal was a bitter sting, like a wasp's.

"I thought it would be wonderful if you made a toy for my little sister, Masuyo," Saya said cheerily.

"Indeed," Shiroihana murmured, smirking.

Masuyo's face burned so hotly he thought his skin would dry out and crack like desert soil under the sun. He formulated a response that he hoped would make them lose interest in him. He had learned that when Shiroihana turned her attention to him the outcome was always negative. If he could last through a day without her speaking to him it was a good day. "Please forgive me," he began, "but I have no great talents. It was my Big Brother who was the finest carver."

"Hmn," Shiroihana purred, leaning in over the table to catch Masuyo's attention. The boy refused to look at her. "Perhaps I will have your older brother come and carve for me then."

Masuyo didn't miss the threat in her voice. He gradually raised his head until he was glaring at Shiroihana, blue eyes narrowed into slits of hatred. "I would love to use what little talent I have to make a gift for Lady Hanone."

Shiroihana sat back and grinned. "Excellent, but I believe Hanone has enough toys."

"But it's the season of her birthday!" Saya protested.

"A few more weeks yet," Shiroihana replied, dismissively. Her eyes moved over the ornate walls of the dining room, admiring them. Masuyo watched her expression and sneered, hating her all over again for liking the walls. Her love of them made him despise the decorations though he knew the decadence might have pleased him in a time before he'd met Shiroihana. "Your father is coming for you soon," Shiroihana said.

For a heartbeat Masuyo felt the rage and loneliness slip away. His shoulders lifted, his eyes lit up from within. He was about to speak but Saya beat him to it, saying, "Father is coming to take me back to Nejiro?"

Shiroihana's glance slid from the decorative walls and over to Masuyo. She was smirking. She had known the boy was watching her and when she had spoken without addressing someone and without looking at either of the children it gave both the boy and the hanyou hope that she was talking about their father. Yet the moment Saya spoke Masuyo knew Shiroihana had tricked him, purposefully causing him torment.

Shiroihana spoke to Saya then. "Sesshomaru has told me that he does not wish for you to witness the birth. I expect he will be here soon to take you from here."

"What about Momma? What did she decide?" Saya always referred to her mother in a childish, overly-familiar term, revealing a deep relationship that Masuyo envied and had once shared with Sango.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything yet," Shiroihana answered.

Hanone walked through the open door then, followed closely by Ginrei. Mother and daughter sat at the opposite end with Hanone separating Shiroihana from Ginrei as she did every morning.

Masuyo always silently thanked Ginrei for simply existing. Her presence usually distracted Shiroihana from torturing him. As much as Masuyo wanted to speak to the inuyoukai woman and get to know her there was something taboo about his curiosity. If Ginrei hadn't been pregnant he might have faced her with more bravery, but because of his embarrassment Masuyo stammered awkwardly when Ginrei did try to speak with him. Ginrei's overall impression was that he was a simpleton, picked out by Shiroihana the same way a cat might toy with a lame mouse before eating it. Ginrei pitied Masuyo but made little effort to see that he was treated better. Her only concern was Hanone.

As Masuyo had hoped, Shiroihana's attention switched over to Ginrei. Her expression softened with what might've been concern, but her eyes narrowed with dislike. "How are you feeling today, Lady Ginrei?"

"That's nothing to do with you," Ginrei replied, curtly.

"Are you hungry?" Shiroihana persisted. As she spoke Shiroihana touched Hanone's silky white hair, admiring the smoothness of it. Hanone wore her hair long and unrestrained, childish in its lack of style. Saya wore her hair in a style almost identical to Shiroihana's comparatively. The sisters were roughly the same age, but Masuyo wouldn't have guessed that by sight. Hanone was shorter and plumper, as if she were half of Saya's age. Saya looked like a ten year old girl, Hanone was still a child.

Ginrei's glare intensified when Shiroihana touched Hanone. The pregnant mother slapped Shiroihana's clawed hand with her own, filling the room with a resounding sound like a clap of flesh on flesh. Shiroihana withdrew her hand and stared at Ginrei, seemingly stunned by Ginrei's aggression.

"Lady Ginrei! You must be feeling very wretched today indeed!" Shiroihana exclaimed with mock surprise.

"Mother," Hanone murmured, "are you going to tell Lady Shiroihana about the blood?"

"There's no need," Ginrei replied, muttering.

Masuyo pretended not to hear but he couldn't stop the blush that spread over his face. He pointed his eyes at the wall, imagining that he was with his younger brothers, Koudo and Riki, wrestling in the mud that would have come with the latest rains.

"You must retire to your chambers," Shiroihana announced, with false concern. "The pup is on his way! A son for Lord Shimofuri!" Her excitement was not completely feigned, Masuyo made out the genuine quiver in her voice.

The meal dragged on, tortuously. When it ended at last Shiroihana ordered Masuyo to collect their dirtied dishes and carry them to the wash basin in the kitchen far across the cloud palace. She was distracted with the need to send a messenger to the Middle Lands and perhaps to her own son. Hanone and Ginrei left as one, forgetting Saya and Masuyo.

Masuyo went to work, gathering the little teacups, the plates, and the platters. Saya helped him and started to chatter. A maid—a gecko youkai—appeared and waited outside. Even after weeks of seeing the same thing, the maids were uncomfortable with Masuyo's presence. He took their roles sporadically, giving them unexpected moments of free time. The unpredictability of it unnerved them because Shiroihana could kill one for laziness.

Saya was preoccupied with the thought of the impending birth. "Maybe Father won't come here in time and Lady Shiroihana will ask me to help! Hanone is too young, you know. When Momma had—"

The saucer that Ginrei had taken only a tiny sip from tipped over. The dark liquid crawled over the grains of the wood in the table. Masuyo groaned and used his sleeve to mop it up. Saya hopped over the table to be by his side, startling the demon slayer boy with her burst of energy. She began wiping with her kimono sleeves which were white with purple and golden flowers embroidered into the silk. The tea stained an ugly brown on her sleeves immediately, like old dried blood.

"Saya! Don't!" Masuyo pushed her back forcefully. "You ruined your clothes."

Saya shrugged. "You needed help."

Masuyo flicked his wet sleeves and sat dejectedly down on the cushion that Ginrei had been sitting on. The tea that hadn't been sopped up yet gleamed in the white light that streaked in from the windows. Masuyo's temper flared up inside him, making him glare at Saya suddenly. "You've_ helped_ me more than enough already."

Saya's young face creased with confusion and hurt. "What? What do you mean, Masu?"

He frowned, irritated and chastised by the way she called him _Masu_, the name his brothers and Kasai might have done. Childish tears welled in his eyes and Masuyo bit his lip, his back stiffened. "You told Shiroihana about what I can do."

"What do you mean?" Saya asked, perplexed. "That you are an artisan?"

"That I can carve! She threatened to take my brother! Why did you tell her, Saya? What else have you told her?" He shook his head as anger dissipated, leaving loneliness and pain. "I thought I could trust you. I thought you were my friend and you would understand…"

"I am your friend!" Saya yelled, suddenly desperate. "Why was telling Lady Shiroihana about your talent bad?"

For the first time, staring at her, Masuyo realized that Saya didn't know. She didn't understand how he felt, trapped inside Kagetsu, alone, a hostage and a humbled servant when he had been raised to be a warrior that killed demons and freed people from fear. Her face, clear and white with smooth skin as silky as her white hair, was rumpled with confusion and hurt. The crescent moon on her forehead, a purple color like a plum, seemed to have dulled from moments ago, reflecting her mood. The golden eyes that stared at him were the same shade as Shiroihana's, but Masuyo couldn't imagine them narrowed with suspicion. She looked so much like Shiroihana but Saya was not his enemy.

He let out a long breath and recalled, faintly as if cloudy water thickened his memory, that Inuyasha had often been called "dense." Was Saya "dense" too?

He decided to be blunt with her. "I hate Shiroihana." The emotion grew inside him, making his fists clench up in rage. He blurted out, "I would carve _her_ bones if I could!"

"Masuyo!" Saya wailed, cringing as if he had actually said he wanted to hurt her instead.

Shame covered over the rage, controlling it. Masuyo looked away from her, back to the drying stain. "I'm sorry—but I'm her slave. Her toy. I hate it." He closed his eyes, fighting the tears again. "I'm so lonely here, Saya. Everything is so strange. Your sister, Lady Ginrei, the stupid geckos…"

The lizard maid flicked her tongue outside and blinked her eyes with a wet popping sound.

"I know," Saya murmured, sniffling. "I hate it here too!"

Masuyo lifted his head, startled by the admission. "You do?"

Saya wiped her nose and her eyes with her stained kimono sleeves. She was shaking slightly as she nodded. "Lady Shiroihana is very cold. Lady Ginrei is so angry all the time. Sister doesn't like to play with me and Ginrei yells at her if she makes too much noise with me. I miss Momma and Father, even Jaken and my little brother!"

"Why are you here?" Masuyo asked, his own pain mercifully forgotten.

"Momma and Father sent me to visit Lady Shiroihana and Hanone because of the new pup." Her expression soured. "Everyone is worried about _babies;_ they're too busy for me."

"I'm sorry," Masuyo murmured, sighing. "I didn't know."

"Lady Shiroihana asks me about you all the time, every night," Saya told him, sniffling. "I don't tell her hardly anything. But I thought you would like her to know you're talented. I thought it would make her stop treating you like one of the servants."

Staring at her, Masuyo realized that Saya was not dense. He had been wrong and misjudged her. She had miscalculated, but Saya had never betrayed him and she had known partly of how he'd felt. He had thought she was drawn to help him by Shiroihana's orders or out of simple curiosity, but now he suspected it was because she had known how similar they were, trapped in Kagetsu together against their will.

"Shiroihana said Sesshomaru is coming to get you soon," Masuyo reminded her.

Saya brightened at once and nodded. "Yes, I'm going home finally." She grinned at him and her golden eyes sparkled with a mixture of the leftover tears and eagerness. "And you'll come too!"

"Are you sure?" Masuyo asked, hesitantly.

"Lady Shiroihana said you are Father's ward—and mine. Lady Shiroihana wouldn't lie about that."

"I'm not so sure," Masuyo grumbled.

Saya smirked at him. "I'm sure. Lady Shiroihana is my grandmother. She is cold but she loves me."

"I hope you're right," Masuyo murmured. "I would be a lot happier away from here." He paused and cleared his throat, certain suddenly to give Saya's father the proper respect. "Lord Sesshomaru would make a better master."

"Father won't be your master," Saya said, grinning. When Masuyo's face twisted with confusion, she explained, "Momma would take care of you and after her it would be me." She sat upright, sticking her chest out with pride. "I will become your mistress. Lady Shiroihana says you are a fearless boy, that was why she chose you to be my guardian."

Masuyo's voice was stiff when he spoke at last, "Will you let me go home when you become my mistress?"

Saya nodded slowly, solemnly. "If you want to, yes. I'll let you go home forever or just to visit." She lowered her eyes, staring at her stained sleeves. "No one should be forced to stay where they don't want to be."

* * *

It was a hot clear day, a sharp reminder that summer had not yet relinquished its hold on Japan. The group was making good time. They would reach the point where Miroku and Sango would take their family north, deeper into the mountains to reach the slayer's village the next day as long as nothing delayed them or slowed their speed. Inuyasha pressed forward with eagerness, ready to be home and have the long journey and all of its worry behind him.

Kagome talked as usual while they walked, passing the miles with her usual idle conversation. It irritated and entertained Inuyasha in spurts while at other times he tuned it out in favor of smelling the breeze, hearing a bird chirp and cry from the trees alongside the road, or watching the clouds and the wind, predicting the weather if he could. Their current topic had engaged him as well as Sango, Miroku, Tisoki, and even Kasai. They were discussing Koinu and Akisame's purifying powers while the siblings were gone, out scouting with Shippo.

This was the first time that Kagome had had a chance to hear of her children's latest trait. She listened and then questioned them with disbelief at first, then shock, and finally pride. She had always believed that her children exhibited more demon-like characteristics than human ones. Koinu had her personality but his father's looks. Akisame had her mother's looks but her father's eyes and temperament. Kagome had always thought her humanity was overwhelmed in her children by Inuyasha's inuyoukai heritage. Now there was evidence of her own influence.

For Tisoki, Miroku, Kohimu, Nobe, and Kasai it was brand new information, a new thing to add to their experience of hanyou traits. At first Kasai was eager to hear about it too, but as Inuyasha described the fight at Master Dani's temple, how the monk Kenpo and then the possessed Kasai had purified Koinu one time and then failed to do it again; she hugged herself and fell deeply silent. Sango tried to make Inuyasha stop the story when she noticed her daughter's expression but Kasai assured her mother that she was fine and Inuyasha, mostly uninterested in their interaction, continued unheeded.

"It shouldn't be possible," Miroku said with glazed eyes as he walked and contemplated the siblings. "You say he was able to withstand purifying energy unchanged?"

"Yeah," Inuyasha grunted.

"It's Kagome's influence," Tisoki said. "The powers of a miko are often inherited, right?"

"Not to hanyou," Sango murmured.

"In my time," Kagome interjected with a high, authoritative voice, "we know that babies are born with their mother's immunities. Akisame and Koinu might have it as an immunity because I'm their mother." She sighed and shook her head regretfully. "I wish the people in my time knew about this sort of thing so they could study it and we'd know the answer for sure."

"It isn't just an immunity if Akisame was using it to kill the kitsune," Miroku pointed out.

"Exactly," Sango agreed.

Kohimu raised his voice at last. "The only way to learn more about it is if Koinu and Akisame agree to experiment for us. If they can act as mikos and be trained than we know they have both inuyoukai and miko traits clearly, rather than…" he shrugged helplessly, unable to come up with a good way to describe what the siblings might actually possess. Not a duality of human and demon traits, but a sort of defensive immunity.

"We'll be reaching the crossroads tomorrow," Tisoki reminded everyone, sulking. As demon slayers they were all bound by a mixture of duty and genuine curiosity to research every bizarre thing they discovered in relation to demon kind. If they passed by opportunities to learn they usually paid for it. Knowledge was key to surviving in a fight; it exposed weaknesses and strengths alike.

"Feh," Inuyasha grunted, suddenly fidgety. He moved close to Kagome and elbowed her, lowering his voice. "If Koinu had it his way they'd all get their wish."

Kagome frowned with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Koinu has some fucking stupid idea that he wants to go with Kasai to the slayer's village," the hanyou muttered.

"Really?" Kagome asked, intrigued.

Seeing her mind in action, Inuyasha bristled. "It ain't happening!"

"He's turning sixteen this fall, Inuyasha," Kagome reminded him. "I think—"

"Fuck no," Inuyasha interrupted her. "Just to let him go and be some kind of…" his ears flicked and his brow furrowed with concentration. "What the hell do you say all the time for this sort of thing? Whinny pig? Jinny peg?"

"Guinea pig," Kagome supplied. She sighed. "I don't really see anything wrong with letting him go for a little while if it's what he wants. If he didn't want to go then I would never…"

Inuyasha growled. "You think it's a _good_ idea?"

"I'll admit I'm really curious. I would like to see for myself what Koinu could do if he has my powers. Akisame too, of course." Her face had brightened as she spoke and her eyes searched over the path ahead, looking for her children eagerly. Her mind was filled with the sudden unexpected pride of seeing her powers potentially within her children. She didn't see the way Inuyasha's expression darkened and his golden eyes widened gradually with disbelief.

"You _do_ like the idea!" Inuyasha blustered at last.

"What's wrong with it?" Kagome asked, startled. "Curiosity is natural. And if Akisame and Koinu do have my powers I'd like to know so I can train them to use them."

"Feh," Inuyasha snapped, narrowing his eyes on the dusty road as if it had offended him. "You can test it out at home. They aren't old enough to leave without—"

"Koinu is almost _sixteen,"_ Kagome interrupted. She shook her head, partially in shock at her own admission. In her time Koinu would be in high school, playing flirty games with girls, worrying about homework and tests and fitting in. Here in the Feudal Era the concerns about fitting in remained, but sixteen marked manhood. If Koinu were a human adolescent in a village somewhere he would be betrothed, building a home of his own.

"So?" Inuyasha spluttered. "He ain't old enough."

"Miroku and Sango would take good care of him. They could probably even use his help with Koudo and Riki now that Masu is…" she drifted off, lowering her eyes. Her husband's feet and his hakama pants swished beside her, leading slightly. She frowned, recalling as if in a dream the way that Inuyasha had reacted to Akisame when she'd first started menstruating. Before the nightmare of their abduction and the hunt on Iruka the hanyou, Inuyasha had been struggling with an internal battle, a fight that Kagome had barely had time to glimpse before disaster took over and shielded those other pettier concerns. But like cobwebs in a corner they hadn't gone away. She would have to dig and force out the spiders before she could sweep the mess away.

"I know you don't like to see them growing up," Kagome started, cautiously. "But it's not as if you can stop it, Inuyasha. Akisame's old enough to have babies of her own—"

"What the hell?" Inuyasha snapped. He glared at her, nostrils flaring. "She _is not old enough!"_

"Physically," Kagome corrected herself, wincing at his yelling. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Miroku and Kohimu, the closest behind them, had fallen back a little, trying to respect the feuding couple's privacy. She lowered her voice. "Physically she could. That's all I'm saying."

"If any of them even _thought_ about it I'd rip off their…"

"Inuyasha! That's _not_ what I'm saying at all—would you just…" Kagome shouted, trying to cover his words with her own and failing.

"…and _make them fucking eat the shredded chunks for a fucking week!"_

Kagome groaned, her shoulders heaving with it in frustration. "Koinu and Akisame _aren't_ tiny and helpless anymore, Inuyasha. If Koinu wants to go with Miroku and Sango to the slayer's village…"

Inuyasha scowled, grumbling. "He didn't want to go to be a Jinny-peg. He wanted to be with Kasai."

Immediately Kagome grasped those words and inferred meaning. She put together Koinu's desire and the protective detail he'd put on Kasai since they'd rescued her. At the same time she saw with one look at her husband's face that Inuyasha did not understand the way his son felt for Miroku and Sango's daughter. It was set in the way his lips curled down in a steady frown, by the lack of a blush in his cheeks, even the wrinkling of his brow.

Kagome almost laughed as it came clear to her. She didn't stop the wide grin that spread over her lips.

Inuyasha snapped as he noticed the smile. "What's that for?"

"Don't you know why Koinu wants to go with them?"

Inuyasha growled. "Cuz he's fucking stupid? He needs to be with me and Shippo to help train Aki."

"He could visit with them until the leaves turn, then come home before the snows. You have all winter and spring to train Akisame. Long, boring months…Koinu isn't getting out of any responsibilities by going."

The hanyou's ears fell backward and his face twisted. He peeked out of the corner of his eyes down at Kagome with open suspicion. Years of living with her had taught him that her tone and the smile on her face meant she knew something he didn't and it was driving their conversation currently. "Kagome?" he asked, irritably. "What the hell is…"

"Koinu wants to go with Kasai because he has feelings for her. Haven't you seen it?"

"What?" Inuyasha demanded, blinking. His ears sprang forward and swiveled, pointing toward Kagome, focusing.

"Koinu likes Kasai. He's trying to spend more time with her to protect her and make sure she's okay."

"No fucking way…" Inuyasha's lips disappeared into a thin line. "He's too young," he growled. It had become his mantra and even the hanyou was beginning to hear how repetitive it sounded, how unconvincing.

Kagome's hand slipped into his own, startling him for a moment into staring down at her frankly with open, blank eyes. She smiled up at him and squeezed his hand tightly in her own. "How long are you going to keep saying that? If you accept that they're growing up, Inuyasha, you can adjust and become a part of their lives again."

"I _am_ part of their lives!" he hissed, instantly taking offense.

"Yes you are, but they need you in a new way. You have to start teaching them new lessons, Inuyasha." Her voice had dropped into a low, gentle tone, one of comfort and guidance. "You can't just be their father now, you have to learn how to _counsel _them, not just _command_ them." She stopped and sighed, lower her head as a new thought came to her, wearying her suddenly. "I have to learn the same thing. I can't make Akisame stop cursing. I can tell her I don't like it, but I have to let her be herself now that she's gotten older."

"What the hell do you want me to do?" Inuyasha asked in a low, slow growl of defeated exasperation.

"I think training Akisame is a great idea for one thing—but with Koinu you have to let him make his own decisions. If you think it's wrong for him to leave with Miroku and Sango, tell him that and why. Don't forbid him to go without a reason. And you could try talking to him about Kasai. Fathers should always be there for their sons when they're in love." Her voice softened, growing wistful. "Do you remember when Sota came to you to ask what he should do when he had his first crush?"

Inuyasha grunted but he was smiling. "Feh…" His face flushed brilliant red and he shrugged uncomfortably. "I remember when he wanted to know how to get some girl in bed too!"

"What?" Kagome demanded, appalled. "He _asked_ you about _that?"_ She fought to strangle her shock, to keep it from overwhelming her mind before she could ask the more important question: "What did you _tell him?"_

"Feh!" Inuyasha crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not gonna tell _you…"_

Kagome smirked and elbowed him in the side. "You didn't tell him anything, did you? You clammed up and told him to talk to me."

The hanyou stammered, defending himself. "I talked to him!"

"Will you be able to talk to Koinu?" Kagome asked, partly serious and partly teasing.

"Would you come off it and shut up already?" he growled.

* * *

Shippo, Akisame, and Koinu returned when the shadows started lengthening and the gnats and mosquitoes gathered to feast in the growing forest shade. Akisame and Shippo had spent the day trying to entertain Koinu, to lighten his soured mood. Akisame ate bugs and leaves and spat them at Shippo to see if he could dodge them. Shippo posed riddles to Akisame and Koinu and told various myths and stories he'd heard while traveling. Koinu laughed with them and participated somewhat but both of his companions could see the distraction in the way he walked and gazed off with his sharp blue eyes unfocused, unaware of the current surroundings.

When they rejoined the others Koinu stayed with them rather than moving to be closer to Kasai. Akisame happily took advantage of his company, failing to notice his discomfort and continued distraction as the others moved around the camp, talking. Koinu caught the way the slayers and even Inuyasha and Kagome were watching he and Akisame with a strange intensity, a curiousness.

"Here's another one," Akisame rambled, glaring at Shippo where he was perched in his fox form on a flat rock several feet away. "This is the best one so far. Uncle Sota told it to me."

They had been playing a competing riddle game where Shippo and Akisame both told a story or a puzzle and Koinu judged. So far Shippo had been the winner, as was expected for a fox, but Akisame was stubborn and refused to give up.

"What happens once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in an hour?" Akisame asked, smirking. Her golden eyes glinted with amusement.

Shippo's jaw opened, showing his lolling tongue and white teeth in a foxy grin. His demeanor showed he had little fear of Akisame claiming victory.

Koinu scowled, watching as Kohimu and Tisoki muttered in quiet conversation. _I should be able to hear them._ He sighed as he realized that this was the night of the new moon. The quarter part of his inuyoukai heritage was failing fast.

"Did you hear me?" Akisame demanded, poking him with one clawed forefinger.

"Say it again," Koinu muttered, closing his eyes.

Akisame obliged him with surprising patience and Koinu's ears fell backward as he concentrated, attempting to work it out. At last he shook his head. "No idea, Aki."

"M," she said, grinning triumphantly.

"M?" Shippo asked, now in his human form.

"M," Akisame repeated, her tone darkening as she realized that Shippo was seemingly unimpressed. "The letter M. Minute, moment, and hour. There's no M in hour!"

"Pathetic," Shippo announced, yawning.

"Fuck you!"

"On a scale of one to ten, that's eight." Koinu rubbed his face, scratching as his skin began to twitch and wriggle. The transformation was coming though the sun had not yet vanished beyond the horizon. "What are they talking about?" Koinu asked, gesturing weakly at the slayers.

"A score of eight means I'm closing the gap! Eat that Shippo!"

"You won't win before the sun sets," Shippo said, grinning.

"Seriously," Koinu muttered, grimacing as another wave of the impending transformation fluttered over his skin. He saw a strand of hair flush dark. "They're talking about us. Something's up."

"Your skin's doing that icky twitchy thing," Akisame told her brother, curling her lips in disgust. "It looks really sick."

"My turn," Shippo barked. "No sooner spoken than broken. What is it?"

"What the hell is that? That's not even real! You're cheating! That's not enough information to…" Akisame jabbed a finger at him accusingly.

"Ten points to Shippo," Koinu muttered. "I'm going to go talk to them."

As he moved over to speak to Kohimu and Tisoki, Akisame growled and cursed. "Dammit. Shippo! You cheater! I win if you can't answer this one: You use a knife to cut off my head and cry beside me when I'm dead. What is it?"

Shippo rolled his green eyes. "An onion."

"_You're cheating!"_

Before Koinu could reach the slayers he gasped, cringing and pausing in his step as the wriggling sensation passed beneath his skin once more, this time with a twinge of pain. His ears burned hotly with pain for a moment, making him gnash his teeth until his canines hurt as well with the transformation. His ears were always the most painful, but the moment he felt the sharp pain subside to a dull ache he recovered ignoring the rest of the pain and aching as his body shifted, becoming human.

He shook to rid himself of the crawling sensation and almost missed Inuyasha's voice calling for him. Koinu blinked and gazed up at where his father was seated away from the slayers, farthest from the fire. Kagome was at his side, smiling while Inuyasha scowled. The hanyou had not transformed yet though his senses would all be weak.

Sighing, Koinu walked over to them and sat down, waiting expectantly although not with the greatest patience.

"Koinu," Inuyasha began in a gravelly, irritated voice that told Koinu that Kagome had wrangled his father into the current discussion. He braced himself, glad that his dog ears were gone so that they wouldn't give away his uncertainty by laying flat atop his head. Inuyasha went on abruptly with, "If you want to go to the slayer's village with—Ka—uh—Miroku and Sango," he stopped to growl briefly before nodding, "You can go."

Koinu failed to stop the frown from spreading over his face. A glance at his mother told him that she'd caught the pain that registered on his face. He prayed she would mistake it for leftover aches from his transformation. He shook his head. "No, I rethought it and Father, you need me to help with Aki."

Inuyasha's expression lightened immediately. "Damn straight I do. Feh! I knew you were too smart to—"

Kagome snatched one white dog ear and twisted it, making Inuyasha yelp at the unexpected pain. She spoke over him as soon as she released his ear. "Sorry, Koinu. Don't listen to your father. He meant what he said, if you want to go to the slayer's village you can."

Inuyasha growled and rubbed at the afflicted appendage. He cursed under his breath. "Sometimes, Kagome…"

Koinu felt his spine stiffen slightly. He focused on his mother and spoke clearly for her. "I don't want to go to the slayer's village."

Kagome's expression was one of confusion, like a lost woman bumbling in the dark woods. "Are you sure…? Don't let your father hold you back. You're turning sixteen this year."

"He said he doesn't want to go!" Inuyasha blustered. "Fucking leave it alone, Kagome!"

Koinu aimed his question at his mother carefully. "Why do you want me to go?"

"I don't! Your father told me you wanted to go and Miroku and Sango were hoping that you or Akisame would go with them for a little while to…" she paused and frowned, "…play guinea pig for them. They want to learn how you and Akisame can have my miko powers."

"Oh," Koinu murmured, nodding with a mixture of relief and regret. He would have happily obliged Miroku and Sango's wishes for the sake of his own curiosity too, but the thought of watching Kasai recover…would she grope the other villagers as she regained her confidence? Would she do the same to him but without any regard for his feelings? It would be far easier for him to part ways with her and help his father train Akisame.

"He doesn't want to go," Inuyasha put in, grumbling.

Kagome drew a deep but quiet breath and nodded. "Okay then…"

Koinu left them uncomfortably, fidgeting in nervousness. He pulled on his human ears and wiggled them, making funny faces to distract himself. He squinted with his duller human eyes across the camp to where Kasai sat alone with Burikko in her lap.

_No sooner spoken than broken…_

_

* * *

A/N: I'm worried I'm coming down with a cold. Fluid in my ear, which doesn't usually happen to me. Weird. End of the semester stress out. I'm trying to go for my MA after I graduate, but it's tricky right now and I might not do it unless I enter a competitive program where I work for the University by teaching incoming freshman and in return they PAY me and waive tuition. YES! But...yeah...teaching. Ick. But anyway...**on 12-19 I'm getting my lower wisdom teeth out and I'm scared to death. I hate drugs and I hate deliriousness and pain. I'm the biggest wimp you've ever seen so...prayer...? :-O** Thanks to all who read!! Especially to those who drop me a line, makes my day every time!  
_


	36. Silence

A/N: The male guppy fish is chasing around the heavily pregnant female in the tank, who also happens to be his sister…yes, fish inbreed happily. Yuck. This chapter just kept going and going. I am SORRY!! Wisdom teeth countdown: 5 days.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original characters.

Last Chapter: Koinu and Kasai had a little of a misunderstanding, leading to Koinu deciding that he didn't want to go with the slayers. Meanwhile Kagome heard for the first time that both of her children had either resisted miko powers or actually used them, which surprised her and made her eager to learn how and why with the help of Miroku and Sango. She convinced IY that it was an acceptable idea for Koinu to go with the slayers. She also let the cat out of the bag as far as his feelings toward Kasai. IY felt a little stunned that his son was as grown as that. But when they asked Koinu if he wanted to go he said no. Meanwhile Masuyo and Saya bonded as Masuyo realized that Saya is a captive of sorts as well. Sess and Rin sent her away because of "the new pup." Ginrei was going into labor. Saya predicted that one day she would be Masuyo's mistress and she would set him free.

* * *

**Silence**

After the sun had set on their camping spot, Inuyasha withdrew from the group with a cranky look on his face. He sat at the edge of their little clearing, frowning at the fire. Shippo joined him, jabbering cheerfully in spite of Inuyasha's pouting. Miroku and Sango stayed together, lying beside one another, half sleeping already though they had not prepared or eaten a meal for the night yet.

Pouting on the night, or nights, of his transformation tended to be one thing that Koinu shared with his father. He sat beside the fire, enjoying its warmth like a cat, closing his blue eyes, listening with his weakened ears to the people around him. Akisame and Kagome were discussing herbs with Akisame shrugging off the information that her mother offered and Kagome insisting that her daughter commit it all to memory. Nobe had stayed with Kasai while Kohimu and Tisoki went hunting. Kasai was helping Nobe sculpt a lump of wood. She was quiet and patient, far removed from the energetic, playful Kasai that Koinu remembered from before her abduction.

She had smiled and even laughed when they sparred, once he had gotten her to overcome the strange fear and depression that had taken over her whenever she thought of her own sword. Had he imagined the warmth in her eyes when she walked at his side? The sadness when he left her?

He jumped, letting out a little yelp when Akisame sat down heavily at his side, groaning with irritation. "Aki?" he demanded, blinking.

"I know you're sulking and all but I _had_ to get away from Mom," Akisame explained.

"You should listen to her," Koinu grumbled. "Show her the respect she deserves."

"I do!" Akisame snapped. "But she keeps going on like I didn't hear the first time. I told her I don't need to know what the plants look like; I can just _smell _them…" It was true that their mother underestimated their senses, assuming that sight was more important than it was. Koinu tolerated such misunderstandings, Akisame did not.

"You should help her cook," Koinu mumbled, closing his eyes again, returning to his own thoughts and enjoying the fire.

"Ugh!" Akisame groaned, rolling her eyes. She jabbed her brother with her elbow, digging into his ribs with more strength than she had meant to. The jab knocked Koinu over onto his side. Immediately Akisame reached out to help him. "Koinu! I'm so sorry, I forgot you're weak when you're human…"

Koinu slapped her hands away irritably and sat up on his own. He glared at his sister, ignoring the brief flicker of hurt that crossed her face. "You're so…" he cut himself off and huffed. He got to his feet and scanned the rest of the group, searching for someone else he could join, somewhere to go to get away from his sister.

"Koinu?" Akisame asked, sounding almost afraid.

"I'm going to help Mom." He resisted the urge to add a cutting remark and left her, walking the short distance to where Kagome was sitting alone. He knew by the way that Kagome offered a weak, uncertain smile that she had heard every word of their little spat.

"Hello, Koinu," she greeted him.

"Hi, Mom." He reached for one of the herbals stalks, a plant that he recognized as being good for helping the body make new blood. They were still making special meals for Sango, mixing the herb into teas or soups to keep her healthy. Without thinking about it, Koinu pushed his fingernails into the stalk, trying to cut it as he would have normally, but his nails were blunt. The stalk oozed slightly with a little of its precious juices but otherwise it stayed whole. Koinu's face fell. "Oops…"

Kagome shook her head. "I don't have another knife, I'm sorry."

Dejectedly, Koinu handed the stalk back to her. He glimpsed his own black hair as he did so and frowned, sulking even more.

"Don't pout like your father," Kagome cautioned. "It just doesn't suit you." She turned, setting aside the herbs and the knife she'd been using to cut them, and put a finger below Koinu's chin, lifting his face up. Her warm brown eyes narrowed as she examined his human features. A bright, playful smile spread over her lips. "You look a little like Souta."

Koinu blinked but didn't pull away from her scrutiny. "What? Uncle Souta?"

Kagome's smile transformed into a grin. "Yes. You know my brother is very intelligent and very sweet. He's also a real hit with the ladies."

Koinu scowled and gently pushed away his mother's hand. "That doesn't sound like me."

"No?" Kagome asked, teasing him. She leaned in close and lowered her voice almost to the point where the crackling of the fire some ten feet away nearly blotted it out. "What about Kasai?"

Her son flinched and his frown deepened, yet at the same time his face burned hotly with a fierce blushing. "Mom!"

Unlike his father and potentially his sister too, Koinu had known that Kagome would figure him out. It was only a matter of time. If she wasn't distracted enough by other matters Kagome would unravel his behavior in an instant. He risked glancing back at Akisame but found to his relief that she had moved to the tree line where Inuyasha and Shippo were sitting. She was picking a fight with the fox, shouting about the riddles he'd told earlier in the day.

"_No sooner spoken than broken! That's not even real! What's the fucking answer Shippo?"_

Before Koinu could stop himself, he also stared at Kasai. He'd meant only to look for a moment, but that moment lengthened as he watched Kasai steady Nobe's hands, as she shifted his grip on the knife he was using to carve the wood lump. "Like this," she murmured, quietly.

Koinu's own hands twitched, the fingers wriggling for a moment as he recalled how her touch had felt when she had done the same thing. First with the rice balls, then with the carving knife when he had allowed her, in spite of his embarrassment with Kohimu and Tisoki watching, to teach him a little bit of how to carve. Now she was with Nobe, doing the same thing. Anger sparked inside him, but it was coupled more with sadness. _The lessons meant nothing._

"Koinu?" Kagome asked, touching his shoulder.

"What is it?" he snapped, glancing down at his clawless hands, the blunt, fleshy tips of each finger exposed and vulnerable—like his heart.

"Was I wrong?" Kagome asked. When he didn't answer immediately, she squeezed his arm, giving it a little shake. "Koinu—what's wrong?"

_I don't have Uncle Souta's luck._ Koinu tried to wrench his tormenting thoughts away from Kasai, but now, almost with preternatural hearing for a human, Koinu could make out her words across the fire. _"Very good, Nobe…"_

"Koinu? What's wrong?" Kagome asked again, this time louder and with more insistence. She was concerned and with each second that her son didn't look at her and didn't answer, her worry increased.

At last Koinu said, "It's nothing."

"What's nothing?"

"Nothing's wrong."

Kagome gave a small, tight laugh. "I can't believe that. Koinu, I can tell you're upset, why try and hide it?" Then she broke him, adding: "You should never lie to your mother. I'm only here to help you."

Koinu sighed, his shoulders collapsing, losing much of his tension. The childish desire swept over him to hug her as he met her gaze, but he resisted. He was not a pup anymore. There were some problems that his mother's comforting embrace couldn't fix. But when Kagome's hand moved from his shoulder to his cheek, Koinu leaned into her touch and closed his eyes, accepting her care with the same gratitude that he had drawn from the fire.

"What's happened to make you so upset?" Kagome asked, nearly whispering.

He didn't open his eyes when he answered her in the same whisper, "I told Kasai how much I care for her but she—she doesn't feel the same way."

"How do you know?" Kagome asked. She pulled her hand from his face, leaving behind the faint scent of the herbs she had been cutting up. "Did she say that? I think she's a little traumatized right now to—"

"I know she is," Koinu interrupted sharply, growing sheepish. "I didn't expect her to tell me anything back but I offered to go with her—to stay with her in the demon slayer's village. That was why I asked Dad." He stumbled as he caught himself using the more familiar term for Inuyasha and frowned as he went on, not bothering to correct it around Kagome. "But when I told her about it she didn't want me to do it."

"Really?" Kagome's eyebrows lifted into her forehead, revealing her surprise.

Koinu nodded solemnly, trying to keep the discussion from souring his mood even further. His jaw was clenched tightly, but his long black hair hid the action effectively.

"I saw her with you, Koinu," Kagome started, picking up the knife and the green stalk of the herb once more. The blade cut through the stalk with a satisfying wet snap. "I don't think what she told you reflected her feelings. Kasai has gone through a lot. I'm sure she cares about you a lot—but right now it might be too hard for her to cope. I know you've been close with her all of your life. It's not going to come easily."

Koinu watched her steady, experienced fingers manipulate the green stalk, sliding it under the knife to be cut and chopped. "What am I supposed to do, Mom? I can't…" he scowled and closed his eyes to keep himself from turning a watchful eye on where Kasai and Nobe were sitting. _I can't live in the same village with her and watch her flirt and grope…_

The knife stilled over the chopped herbs. Kagome smiled sadly at her son, admiring his human features, the heaviness in his expression. It was achingly familiar to her. She had once seen it in Sango's face, and in her own reflection too. She had told Koinu that he looked like Souta, but really she saw herself in him. She thought of the discussion earlier in the day, the chance that her children carried her own miko powers. Koinu reminded her so much of herself. How strange it was that he would look so much like his father but act like a copy of Kagome herself.

Her chest seemed to swell, filled with pride. She could only offer him the advice that she had taken herself as a schoolgirl.

"I think you have to do what you feel is right, Koinu. Sometimes that means fighting for what you want, even when it hurts and even when you think you're wrong." Her eyes were filled with joy and her smile changed, losing the tinge of sadness. "There were many times when I was angry with your father and convinced he didn't care about me at all, but if I had given up I never would have had you and your sister. I wouldn't be as happy as I am now."

Koinu let out a sigh. A light frown marred his face. "But Dad and Aki, they don't want me to go. Kasai herself told me…"

"I think you have every reason to go to the slayer's village for the rest of the season." Kagome snatched his hands and pulled them without warning close to her, putting them hands up.

Koinu struggled only slightly before giving in, staring at his mother speculatively. "What are you doing?"

"Your father and Sango both say that you and Aki had my miko powers. Do you?"

Koinu felt his skin flush with heat. He stammered nervously, "I—I don't know. Aki said she actually used it to kill the kitsune that—"

"But you showed it too? While you were fighting with Kasai at the temple—she couldn't purify you more than once. I think Sango and Miroku need to research this. Really, I do. You and Aki should learn about it. Any weapon you can use to defend yourself and each other is worth spending a season away from home for. If I could convince your father to let Aki go too, I would. I'll try to work with her myself but she's so difficult, so stubborn." Kagome released his hands and sighed, looking back to the herbs. "Kohimu and Tisoki will be back soon. I need to finish this."

"Let me help," Koinu said, reaching for the knife.

Kagome blocked him. "No, one person is enough." Her smile grew, becoming crafty. "Why don't you keep learning about carving? I know my son can do a better job than that novice Nobe."

"You'd be surprised," Koinu grumbled.

She patted his shoulder encouragingly. "Don't be afraid, Koinu. Go and try it with human hands. You might be surprised all over again." Her voice dropped down to a whisper. "She needs you Koinu."

He sighed, giving in. Slowly, Koinu got to his feet and moved to the other side of the fire. No one watched him, no one took note. Inuyasha, Shippo, and Akisame were still fighting over riddles, Sango and Miroku had fallen silently into sleep. When Koinu reached where Kasai and Nobe were sitting, both working their small knives over formless hunks of wood or youkai bone, both lifted their eyes with surprise. Koinu caught the way Kasai's face, lit and painted orange by the firelight, tightened when she saw him. The edges of her violet eyes crinkled.

"Mom says I should try carving while I'm human," Koinu explained, lamely. He nearly cringed at the dull sound in his voice, barely disguising his discomfort and upset.

"I think that's a good idea," Kasai said, offering a small smile. As he sat down she held out her carving knife and the rounded lump of youkai bone that she had been working on. "This is all I have right now really."

Koinu pushed it away. "No, I'll just mess it up and that's bone." The youkai bone was far rarer than wood and it was the fine shapes and weapons that Kasai and her siblings made from youkai bone that often paid for their lodging. Kasai would turn the lump of ivory into a figurine, a pendant for jewelry, or a small dagger. Koinu would ruin it.

"Take mine," Nobe said.

The block of wood was uneven, whittled down too much on one side. Koinu accepted it and mumbled a quick thank you. Feeling awkward and rude, Koinu pretended to be absorbed by examining the wood and Nobe's previous work. He wrung his brain out like a sponge, searching for something kind to say.

Before he could speak Nobe announced, "It's going to be a set of chopsticks. Kasai says I have to start small." He paused and then asked, "You're new to it too, right?"

"Yeah," Koinu replied. He ran his thumb over the rough, raggedly hewn surface of the wood and thought about how horrible the chopsticks were going to be.

Kasai stayed quiet. Without looking at her directly, just peeking out the corner of his right eye, Koinu saw and heard her begin to scratch at the bone with her knife once more. Little scratches and scraped, shaping and working. Tiny white flakes fell at her knees and into her lap, like tiny cuttings of hair, white hair like Koinu and Inuyasha's were normally.

"Can I ask a question?" Nobe asked almost breathlessly.

"What is it?" Koinu asked, struggling to restrain his irritation toward the other boy.

"You appear so human now! How? Kohimu and Tisoki mentioned something about it earlier to me, but I just don't understand. What kind of magic is it?"

"I am human right now," Koinu muttered, frowning. "I might be human again tomorrow night too. It'll be just my luck, but you won't be there to see it since you'll go with the slayers to their village when we reach the crossroads."

Nobe actually looked saddened as he took in Koinu's words. "Oh, what a shame. It's so remarkable!" The boy leaned in closer, ducking lower to squint at Koinu's face. "You look just like Lady Kagome!"

"Of course I do," Koinu said. "She's my mother so I look like she does." The frown started to deepen into an outright glare directed at Nobe. He felt his shoulders bunching up, tightening with tension. To distract himself, Koinu began working the knife over the block of wood. He put a great deal of energy and pressure into it, making broad, deep cuts. A full chunk of wood fell onto the grassy earth at his knees.

"But normally you look like Inuyasha," Nobe said, stating the obvious. "The difference is so—"

"Yeah, I know!" Koinu snapped. He found himself starting to growl but the sound was too high, altered by his completely human throat. He covered it by grunting, clearing his throat. Even so Nobe had pulled away from him with alarm.

"Try not to stare at him," Kasai put in. "It's really rude, Nobe."

Koinu turned his glare on her as he flicked another large flake of wood away from his black. "What is that supposed to mean, huh? Is it really that hard for all of you _not_ to _stare?_ Am I that bad looking?"

Kasai flinched and she bit her lip as she shook her head in the negative.

When Koinu glanced back at Nobe he found that the boy had also averted his eyes. Nobe picked at the wood flakes in front of him, nervously feeling over them with both hands. Somehow their reaction irritated Koinu even further and he sighed, blustering, "First it's staring; now you're both scared to look at me."

Kasai's hands faltered on the bone just as he finished scolding them. The knife bit into her skin. Kasai gave a small cry and dropped the knife and the bone with a tiny thump into the grass. Her hands shook as she turned them over, searching for the wound.

"Oh no!" Nobe called, forgetting the tension of seconds ago. "Kasai? Are you okay?"

Koinu had frozen, his blue eyes focused on Kasai's hands. His spine felt stiff, as hard as a steel rod, but his throat had begun to burn. He swallowed thickly, startled by his shame and concern. Shame for having lost his temper, concern for what he might have done to Kasai in only a few short minutes of sitting with her while his emotions ran wild inside him, unchecked.

A sparkle of moisture appeared on one of Kasai's fingers. It grew, oozing and then beading. Although the firelight colored it orange-brown Koinu knew it was actually bright red.

"This is my fault. I'm sorry," Koinu blurted, unable to rein in the words. "I'm so sorry…"

Kasai said, "It's nothing." A small bead of the blood dropped and hit the white bone where Kasai had dropped it. Kasai wiped at the blood with her other fingers and then clasped the bleeding one tightly. "I'm fine."

"My mother always taught me to wash wounds and bandage them as soon as they happen!" Nobe chanted. He rose to his feet. "I'm going to go and get Lady Kagome's water and a bandage if we have one…"

Koinu scarcely heard Nobe's announcement. He heard his mother's words from only minutes ago echo inside his brain: _She needs you._ When Nobe came back with one of Kagome's plastic water bottles and one of the fabric brown colored "band-aids" that had filled Koinu's childhood, covering up every bleeding scratch he'd collected, Koinu took the water and the little bandage from him. "I'll do it. It's my fault."

"The knife slipped," Nobe said, surprised by Koinu's response. "It was an accident…"

"Nobe's right," Kasai murmured, quietly.

Koinu ignored her, taking hold of the hand with the bleeding finger. He tipped the uncapped water bottle over her hand, letting the stream of water rinse the offending blood away. After the water had dripped away into the dirt, Koinu tugged on his haori, which was a simple dark brown, and patted her finger carefully. He explained sheepishly, "It has to be dry for the Band-Aid to stick."

As Koinu delicately tore away the plastic strips and aligned the little brown Band-Aid over Kasai's finger, she thanked him quietly. Koinu stared at her, unwilling to let go of her hand. He steeled himself for what he wanted to say next but Nobe interrupted him by reaching in and picking up the little strips of plastic that Koinu had discarded unthinkingly on the ground.

"Lady Kagome said I needed to bring back the scraps to her." He disappeared hurriedly and Koinu hadn't missed the note of awkwardness in his voice and his movement. Nobe had sensed the strange tension between the couple and he wanted out of it with the small crisis averted. Although Koinu knew he owed the youth an apology his main focus was on Kasai.

"Kasai—I'm sorry I got upset—"

She cut him off as she took her hand back from him, holding it close to her chest. "I cut myself. You don't have to be sorry. It was my fault, okay? I think we've all had enough carving for tonight."

The firelight flickered inside its circle of gray stones. Miroku had started to snuffle in his sleep, halfway snoring. Behind him, Koinu could hear his mother jabbering with Nobe, giving him the same lesson about herbs that she'd tried to deliver to Akisame earlier. Shippo and Akisame had restarted their riddle match, this time with Inuyasha as the judge. As Kasai gathered the carving knives and the lumps of youkai bone and wood that could still be used, Koinu searched himself, wondering. He tracked her bandaged finger as she slipped the knives into small sheathes and tucked them away inside the hidden pockets in her kimono sleeves.

"Kasai—let me go with you and your family to the slayer village. I have to understand the miko power I might have. My mom agrees and even my father would let me go."

She worked slowly, lifting the larger blocks of wood and bone from the wet ground and sliding them into two smaller leather bags. One clinked with bone; the other made the thick, dull sounds of wood gently striking more wood. She didn't look at him or acknowledge his words.

"It would only be for the season," he added, quietly.

Her hands stilled at last, holding onto the leather bag of bone chips. Her shoulders rose up and then back down while she stared at her hands, at the ground. "I don't want you to leave your family for me, Koinu," she whispered shakily. "I want you to be happy."

Koinu pressed on, stubbornly. "It will give me a chance to learn what I can do with my mother's powers." He raised his voice as he added abruptly, "It isn't for you—not just for you…"

Kasai lifted her violet gaze and Koinu had time to catch the faint shimmer of unshed tears before Inuyasha shouted to his far right. They turned as one, startled by his voice, and saw Kohimu and Tisoki emerging through the darkness of the trees. Tisoki led the way, carrying two hares and wearing a massive grin.

"About time!" Inuyasha grumbled.

"Dad!" Akisame yelled, pulling on his red haori sleeve. "Who wins? Me or Shippo?"

"You do," Inuyasha answered her dismissively. He was already walking to meet Tisoki to take the rabbits and start gutting and skinning them.

"That's not fair!" Shippo yelled, his tawny tail bristling. "I had the best riddles! Inuyasha—you're just a bad judge. You'll say Aki always wins just because she's your daughter!"

"Shut the hell up, Shippo," Akisame snapped. "I won. Quit being a bad sport."

A cool touch fell on Koinu's hand. He blinked as he realized it was Kasai. She was smiling tentatively with a certain tenderness that sucked all the moisture out of Koinu's mouth. "I have to go help clean their catch," she said, "but tell your sister I know the answer to Shippo's hardest riddle."

"What? _No sooner spoken than broken?_"

Kasai nodded and for a moment, caught in the flickering orange light, Koinu saw the old mischief and glee that he'd grown up with. "The answer is silence." She pulled her hand away from his and rose from her sitting position.

Koinu watched her walk away and though she had given him silence, failed to tell him that she wanted him to go with her, to help her, but that silence held the power of words. Had words ever mattered much between them before?

Determined, Koinu moved after her, ready to help prepare the rabbits even if the work was menial and supposedly a woman's task. He would work at Kasai's side, watching for her tender smile, the one that left something within her exposed for him to see, beautiful and as fragile as his own.

* * *

Excitement and fear worked as one to rob Kasai of all hunger and concentration. She ate sparsely at their evening meal before sleep and then fell into her nightly bout of bad dreams and half-formed memories.

She saw her hands moving of their own accord and couldn't stop them. Nimble and strong, trained to kill monsters many times more powerful than she was, those hands grasped her father's staff, tearing it from his hold and then wielding it on him, whacking him in the head. She had seen the horrible bruise from it in the light of day, still healing though weeks had passed. Then she used the staff on Kagome, but Kagome became Masuyo, curled into a ball and sobbing over their father's inert body.

Kasai heard the musical, cheery jangling as the staff connected with her brother's skull. The bone popped wetly.

She woke up crying out in a moan, the most that her lethargic, sleep drugged throat could manage. She had been screaming in the dream, fighting herself, trying to protect Masuyo from her own killer's hands. In the darkness of the camp, with Miroku and Sango sleeping at either side protectively, Kasai hugged herself and closed her eyes, wondering suddenly if such nightmares were the reason that her uncle, who she had never met, had never returned after the fall of Naraku. It was hard to live with the burden of knowing that she had simply attacked her friends and family. Kohaku had slaughtered his own kin and been forced to live with it, a fate that Kasai couldn't begin to imagine. A tortuous existence.

She laid back down and returned to a fitful half-sleep where her dreams were muddled with mundane things like cutting meat or vegetables, stirring soup and carving.

The new day arrived bright and early. Inuyasha woke them at dawn when his transformation came. In spite of himself the hanyou had fallen asleep during the night and the sudden but brief pain of his transformation made him snap awake with a cry that was loud enough to wake Kasai and many of the other light sleepers. They packed while Inuyasha urged them on, eager to reach the crossroads and their final destinations. Kasai spotted Koinu lingering uneasily around his father, eyeing him. She guessed easily what was on his mind and felt nervousness stir inside her like a physical thing, shrinking her stomach. When Shippo offered her a few wild mushrooms for breakfast she turned them away, claiming that she'd had some meat from Tisoki already.

Koinu had returned to his normal appearance, identical to his father except for the softer quality of his features and his sky blue eyes. Akisame and Shippo shadowed him as they set out, prepared to scout ahead as they usually did. Kasai pretended not to watch whether Koinu went scouting or not, but at some point in the early morning she glanced up and saw that he had disappeared along with Akisame and Shippo, leaving only Inuyasha and Kagome to lead the way.

She trudged along just behind her parents, listening to them talk, feeling the sun's heat increase as it climbed higher in the sky and the gritty crunch of dirt under her sandals and rubbing her feet raw. Many times she found herself turning, searching for something—Masuyo. She had usually taken up a rear or middle position walking with Masuyo. She was the barrier between the generations in her family. Kohimu and Tisoki made up the oldest tier; Kasai separated them from Masuyo, Riki, and Koudo, the youngsters. She had protected Masuyo from Kohimu and Tisoki's teasing as often as she could. Now the emptiness at her side and behind her ate at her, making her remember her nightmare, the wet crack of bone.

Then the road curved. Traffic increased. The slayers and Inuyasha's family adhered to the other side of the road, allowing carts pulled by oxen to pass and men on horseback. Farmers stared with wide eyes at Inuyasha as the group passed. Inuyasha ignored them as he always did, though at times he wasn't above returning their fascination with a glare.

The village marked the crossroads, the intersection between the main road that led east toward Kaede's village and the smaller path that led north and back west slightly, toward a mountain pass. Before that pass was the slayer's village, hidden away, a gem of civilization in the midst of the wilderness.

Koinu, Shippo, and Akisame were waiting for the rest of the group in a brief wooded section before the next rice field and the main section of the village. A man on horseback had ridden by while they waited and his beast had spooked when it smelled all three of them combined. The man was cursing as he led his whinnying horse away from the three youths. But as the fickle animal picked up Inuyasha's scent it fought and reared all over again, shrieking in a surprisingly humanlike panic.

As the horse bolted, nearly smashing the man into the dirt, Miroku gave a quick motion to Tisoki and Kohimu. All three men raced after the horse and the man to help restrain the frightened beast and calm the owner. It was entirely likely that, after apologizing for the cause of the spooked animal, they might ask him to give them a tip for helping retrieve the animal.

Sango's lips pinched into a line as her husband and sons dashed off. "Sometimes he's such a crook." Kasai gave a small laugh, tight with her nervousness. Sango saw it immediately and asked, "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, Mom."

Before Sango could press the issue, Inuyasha's voice broke in on them, greeting Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo. Kasai turned her attention that way. Akisame was talking loudly, unhappy with something. Kasai thought she already knew what it was.

Just as she'd feared, Akisame's gaze found her and pinned her with a glare as she told Inuyasha, "Koinu wants to go to the slayer's village. I told him he'd fucking stupid but—"

Koinu stepped forward, interrupting his sister with a surprisingly loud voice. "It's the right thing to do, Dad. You won't let Aki go but _one of us_ has to go to find out about the miko powers." When he became aware of Akisame's bitter glare, Koinu added, "It would only be for a season! I would be back home before you could miss me, Aki."

Their fighting continued but Kasai missed it as Sango recaptured her attention with a heavy, relieved sigh. She smiled at her daughter. "I was afraid we'd miss out on the chance to understand what happened with those two," she said. "It could be only temporary for all we know."

Kasai nodded, dredging up as much interest as she could while steering clear of the fact that _she_ had been partially responsible for discovering some of it. She had been purifying Koinu, trying to kill him. "Yeah. I always thought it wasn't possible."

Sango was silent for a time and then, just as Kasai had started listening to Akisame and Koinu again, she murmured quietly to her daughter, "And of course I hoped he would come for you."

Kasai blinked. "What?"

Sango shifted Hiraikotsu on her back, making her next words come out in a deeper sound, like a grunt. "I can see how you both feel about each other. Any mother could. But Kasai…"

"What is it?" Kasai asked, focusing entirely on Sango. She had managed, with an extraordinary effort, to partially control her blushing.

Sango threw her daughter a hard, sharp glare. "Don't hurt him. Don't be like your father."

"No," Kasai murmured, averting her eyes. She thought of the night before when Koinu had been human. She had felt the desire to touch his hair, to feel it as if she would feel the change in color. Koinu had been insulted by them staring at him, but Kasai longed to tell him that the staring was not an insult, it was flattery. His human face, framed by the dark hair, had been beautiful, handsome. It was the first time since her ordeal that she had felt the lecherous desire to _touch._

She felt the cut on her finger beneath the bandage tingle briefly with pain and thought: _Koinu deserves better than that._

Kagome had settled the family dispute ahead, speaking to Inuyasha and then reassuring both her children. As Miroku, Kohimu, and Tisoki returned to the rest of the group, with the monk smiling smugly and patting the little coin purse he kept hidden away in his robes, Inuyasha stomped toward them to make the final announcements. His golden eyes fell on Kasai as he approached, but the hanyou chose to interact with Miroku first.

"Koinu's going with you guys." Inuyasha jerked one clawed thumb back toward his own family where Akisame pouted silently, Shippo stood to one side awkwardly, and Koinu and Kagome stayed together in a little united wall. "Kagome wants to figure out what's going on with them."

Miroku nodded with surprising enthusiasm. "I understand. Sango and I were rather hoping one of them would come with us—"

A frown bloomed over Inuyasha's face and his ears fell back. "It ain't permanent monk," he snapped. "Only until fall—before the first snows he better be on his way back." The hanyou's anger was not directed so much at Miroku and his family, it was irritation aimed at Koinu.

Sango moved forward, leaving Kasai, Kohimu, Tisoki, and even Nobe standing behind, dumbly. "Of course, Inuyasha. We're honored that we could take care of Koinu for a season. It's a shame that Aki couldn't come. As I understand it Aki actually _used_ miko powers to _kill…_"

Inuyasha's expression blanked, paling slightly. "Nope, Aki can't go."

"No, of course not." Sango nodded, smiling. The gleam in her eyes, which Inuyasha missed but Miroku didn't, revealed that her enthusiasm and mentioning Akisame had been intentional. She'd forced Inuyasha to drop his irritation by reminding him that Koinu was leaving, but Akisame was safe away from the slayer's sons. It was Akisame they really wanted to examine, but Koinu would do well too in his sister's absence. It was a compromise.

* * *

The goodbyes began. Inuyasha trailed Kagome as she embraced Sango and Miroku and then, as was consistent with her friendly nature, hugged each of their children as well. While Inuyasha was distracted there, Nobe approached Akisame and Shippo with Tisoki following.

"I just wanted to say goodbye," Nobe said, grinning nervously.

Akisame hadn't noticed his approach until Koinu, who was standing beside her, nudged her with his elbow. She glared at him and then at Nobe and Tisoki. "What did you say?"

"I said I wanted to wish you goodbye. Is this the last that I will be graced in seeing you?"

Tisoki started to laugh, tittering in an almost feminine voice. He was watching Inuyasha over one shoulder, waiting for the moment when the hanyou would end Nobe's life for fraternizing with Akisame.

"What the fuck are you laughing at?" Akisame snapped, still effectively ignoring Nobe's rather courageous attempt at a farewell.

Tisoki clapped a hand over his mouth, hiding his lips. He shook his head, claiming innocence silently, but his eyes were compressed with laughter.

Akisame frowned, unimpressed.

"Will I ever see you again, my lady?" Nobe asked, fumbling with the more formal words.

Almost for the first time since he'd arrived, Akisame took in Nobe, looking him up and down from his straw sandals to his torn robes. Her golden eyes, bright and filled with annoyance, narrowed. "What the hell kind of language is that?" she snorted and repeated his words, _"My lady…_bleck."

Koinu answered for his unfriendly sister. "You'll see her again, Nobe." He stepped forward and leaned in close to whisper to the other youth. "Just stop talking to my sister, okay? She isn't interested."

Nobe swallowed tensely and nodded mutely. Behind him Tisoki started giggling uncontrollably, having overheard Koinu's advice. Red in the face, Nobe turned around and collided with the older youth and the couple fell over as one, intertwined like lovers. Their collapse at last broke Akisame's foul mood and she pointed a clawed finger and laughed.

Behind her Shippo sighed and said, "Aki—sometimes you're ridiculous."

"What's your problem, fox?" she snapped, but laughter made her voice high and gentler than usual.

Koinu and Shippo helped Nobe and Tisoki up and then Koinu enveloped the fox in a short hug. When he turned toward Akisame she tried to fight him off but Koinu pushed her arms aside and grabbed her anyway.

"Let go!" she growled, but the protest was entirely bravado. Koinu felt his sister wrap her hands around his chest under his arms. She pushed her face into his shoulder and snuffled, the same thing she had done with him when they were pups and he had carried her on his back, taking in his scent. Although she would never admit it, they both knew she worshipped him. He was the peacemaker like their mother, challenging and loving Akisame no matter how obnoxious she decided to be.

Koinu stroked her wild black hair gently, careful not to catch his fingers in a snare of hair. It was rare now that Akisame would accept such an obvious display of affection, so Koinu made sure not to accidentally draw her out of it. "Promise me something, Aki?" he asked.

"What?" she asked, her voice surprisingly thick.

Koinu realized with a jolt that she was crying. His nose remained weak from his transformation, probably meaning that as soon as the sun set he would become human yet again. He couldn't smell her tears. "Hey," he murmured, "it's okay. I won't be gone long. But I need you to promise me something."

"What?" she repeated, a little harder this time.

"Make Dad train you. As soon as I come back I'll do it, but while I'm away—remind Dad that he promised me he'd train you. And Mom, I need you to listen to her. She loves you so much, Aki. Just like I do."

She sniffled but didn't answer. Koinu waited a moment longer and both felt and saw her head move against him, rippling her long, wild black hair.

"You promise?"

"I promise," she muttered, her lips crushed to his brown haori.

When he released her, Akisame pawed at her eyes and her sniffling increased. She blinked rapidly. Koinu watched her with concern until she pushed irritably at him and said, "Go on, stupid. Go with them. Dad's waiting."

Koinu nodded at her. "I won't be gone long—write me?"

Akisame smiled slowly at him, showing her fanged canines. "Every fucking day because I'm going to be bored as hell!"

Koinu laughed. "I'll look forward to it then—but don't be too bored."

* * *

When the goodbyes had ended, Koinu took a position within the slayers. Among them all, dressed with their traveling clothes and the fighting, protective bodysuits beneath that, Koinu was an outsider. Brown hair and black hair surrounded him. Koinu had never realized how often he looked to his father in the lead, spying the hanyou's white hair so like his own. Now Kohimu, Tisoki, and Nobe led the way with the clink of Tisoki's sickle and the clack of Kohimu's wooden arrows.

At first Koinu walked with Miroku and Sango, mostly listening as they discussed miko powers and theorized how Koinu could resist it or even use it as Akisame had. How would they test it? Miroku pulled out sutras and flicked through them, wrangling with his memory to pick out a good spell to try on Koinu.

Suddenly Koinu felt that their testing might not be very pleasant at all. Being purified was not lethal for him, but it was painful. Rather than listen to them he drifted back in the group to walk beside Kasai, who had taken a rear position.

They walked in silence for a long time. The sun had reached its zenith above. The rays made Kasai sweat but didn't bother Koinu because of his white hair. Kasai wiped at her brow and let out long breaths of hot air.

Sheepishly, Koinu broke their silence. "You should have a parasol."

Kasai turned her head and asked, "What? What do you mean?"

Koinu watched his feet, bare like Inuyasha's, moving over the dusty road, accumulating more calluses and thick, caked on dirt. "You're too pretty to be out here sweating under the sun."

Kasai shook her head and although Koinu had meant for the words to please her, they appeared to have the opposite effect. Her jaw tightened, clamping down, her lips thinned. "Koinu…you should stop being nice to me, I don't deserve it."

"What?" Koinu's ears swiveled with surprise. "Of course you do. I wasn't just being nice! I'm serious."

She seemed to shrink into herself, as if wishing to disappear. "It's so selfish of me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Me. I took you away from your family. I saw how upset Aki was. I should've told you not to come. I tried to but—"

"I wanted to come. Your parents want to learn what I can do, and I want to learn too. And…" He moved closer to her, trying to see her shadowed face. "I wanted to make sure you would be okay."

Her lips curved widely in a watery smile. Koinu saw her long lashes blink. Moisture slipped out but with his weakened nose Koinu couldn't tell whether it was sweat from her brow or tears. "You've been watching over me my whole life." She made a small choking sound. "I don't know how to thank you…"

"Don't worry about it," Koinu told her. He tugged on the ties of his brown haori and stripped it off, handing it to her. "Here, take this and use it like a parasol. It might help."

She took it and lifted her head, smiling at him with the same tenderness he'd seen the night before. "Thank you."

Koinu shrugged his shoulders and looked ahead to the rest of her family. "Think nothing of it. I was hot with it on anyway."

Kasai draped the haori over her head and then, slowly, moved closer to Koinu, slipping her hand into his. Koinu gripped it, squeezing once.

The silence resumed, filled with the sound of dirt crunching beneath the group's feet, the harsh cry of hunting hawks, and occasionally laughter as Tisoki told a joke up ahead. Koinu felt Kasai's sweaty hand in his own, the prickling sensation of his own gathering perspiration on his back, and smiled with growing joy. Kagome's words returned to him: _She needs you._

He had seen that in her tender smile, in her concern that she was being selfish. It was true that she needed him, but she loved him too. For now there was silence, but she had a whole season to voice it.

Koinu looked into the blue sky and relished the summer heat.

* * *

_I do apologize for the length! I didn't want to break it into multiple chapters because with this done I would say I have basically finished **Innocence**. Perhaps one extra chapter and then an epilogue, but I could also just do an epilogue and my muse would be satisfied. So, what do you all think?_


	37. Cat and Mouse

A/N: Ok, so just about everyone that reviewed told me this story could not end without describing Koinu's season-long stay in the slayer's village. I didn't want to make Innocence much longer than _With Our Arms Wide Open_ because I know as a reader that such a long story would intimidate me. (Oh and _CP_ don't worry one little hair on your head. I absolutely did NOT forget about that concern of IY's from the beginning). But as I wrote this chapter, I discovered that it was just as my reviewers, loyal and accurate, are saying. It does not want to end yet.

As a special sort of thing I'm going to upload this the AM before I get my wisdom teeth out. Sorry it isn't _Return's_ update but I had to do Christmas shopping this week and writing articles for money. Yippee. So that is my excuse for where my time went, that and worrying about this wisdom teeth this.

Disclaimer: I do not own them.

Last Chapter: Sorry don't feel like doing this now…last chapter was long and this one is LONGER (I am SO sorry, I don't know what's been wrong with me lately and super long chapters.)

* * *

**Cat and Mouse**

The morning after the breakfast when Masuyo realized that Saya had not betrayed him and was in fact a bit of a hostage herself, Ginrei didn't attend any of the daily meals that Masuyo was forced to share with Shiroihana. Hanone was there, but Ginrei was absent. Masuyo spent the entirety of the morning and afternoon meals gritting his teeth, ready to endure the endless teasing by Shiroihana. Without Ginrei to distract her, the matriarch of the Kosetsu province, and mother of the Lord of the West, turned all of her attention on the human boy, like a cat sharpening its claws on a stubborn sapling.

"By the end of the day I would like to see you turn this lump of cherry wood into a toy for Ginrei's pup," Shiroihana told him at breakfast. She pulled out a small block of reddish wood and held it in her palm for Masuyo.

Masuyo took the wood and looked it over without complaint. He liked Lady Ginrei and had no reason to fight Shiroihana's order. There were only two problems he saw with the command. "Lady Shiroihana—one day isn't enough time unless you want me to make you chopsticks or a blob."

Shiroihana sat back in her seat and stroked Hanone's hair. The little girl was sitting at her side, stabbing the meat on her plate with one very sharp chopstick. The meat gushed wetly and Masuyo saw blood frothing out of it. He looked toward the walls of the room and tried to banish his nausea. His own food was more traditional: sweet rice and some vegetables. He was continuously grateful that Shiroihana's cook, whoever he was, understood that humans could not eat raw, bleeding meat.

"A simple shape will do best, boy. And I'm afraid you only have about a day's time."

"Don't you care what I make?" Masuyo asked, warily. He had received poor instructions from Shiroihana before, followed them to the best of his ability, only to learn that she was displeased and then he would be stuck with a worse chore than before as punishment.

"No," Shiroihana murmured, smiling dryly. "The pup will use it as a chew toy when he begins to teethe."

Masuyo scowled as rash anger spilled over him. He clutched the cherry wood in his palm, hard enough that his nails dug into the supple, painted surface. He cursed her in his mind. Of course she knew that his carving as a demon slayer could make things of great value. He had spent hours learning and practicing with his brothers and although Masuyo was not the most talented in his family, his work was nothing to sneeze at. Whatever he made for the new baby would be worth far more than a chew toy.

"Lady Shiroihana," Saya said, also frowning. "Masuyo's gift to the pup shouldn't be a chew toy!"

"It is an honor for him that I allow him to make anything for the pup! This child is long awaited by Lord Shimofuri! If that prissy Ginrei had simply accepted him sooner she would have a massive brood by now. Instead she's wasted such time on ceremony. That saint Shimofuri has allowed her to do it too…" Shiroihana huffed and shrugged her shoulders. One hand stroked the white fluff at her shoulders, as if she were soothing herself.

A gecko maid appeared at the door, hissing as its tongue slurped in and out of its lipless mouth. "Lady," it called. "The lord of the Middle Lands has come."

"Excellent," Shiroihana said, clapping her hands. "Bring him to us."

The gecko blinked. Its eyelids made a slick popping sound as they opened and closed. "That's not formal," it said.

"This is not a formal time!" Shiroihana said, sniffing. "Lady Ginrei is lying in her room covered in sweat! I'm not going to waste his time in the audience room." She waved one hand at the gecko in a shooing motion. "Get going. Bring him here."

Masuyo shifted uncomfortably and glanced quickly to Saya. He longed to ask her about Shimofuri. The name was familiar to him, but Masuyo had never seen the lord, only heard Shippo speak of him occasionally.

"Boy," Shiroihana said, catching Masuyo's attention.

"What?" he snapped.

Shiroihana's face warped with amusement at his sharp tone. "My, what poor manners. Didn't your mother teach you better than that? I am your superior."

"Didn't _your_ mother teach _you_ not to pick on defenseless humans?" Masuyo goaded her, glaring. He had controlled his temper since coming to Kagetsu palace, but staying quiet and respectful had not worked to stop Shiroihana's relentless teasing. Perhaps rudeness was what she wanted.

Shiroihana's eyes widened slightly, the gold lightened. Her lips parted, showing the sharp glint of fangs. Masuyo regarded her without fear, only anger.

"It is rude to speak of the dead," Shiroihana said.

"So she didn't teach you that it's cowardly to pick on those weaker than you?" Masuyo said, challenging her.

Now Shiroihana's face darkened with anger. "But you are not weak, boy. You have your pebbles, do you not?" The anger dissipated, changing to something else, almost a softness, like the kind she wore when scolding Saya. "And you're not afraid of anything, are you?"

Masuyo stayed silent, glaring.

Footsteps pounded outside, approaching them through the hall. Two different treads, one was the popping, sucking sound of the gecko-maid, the other the dry thump of a man's feet. Shiroihana sat up, still petting the fluff at her shoulders. "Ah, Lord Shimofuri has come to grace us with his presence."

"Great," Masuyo muttered under his breath. He took in Hanone and Saya's demeanors, guessing as fast as he could what Shimofuri was like. Hanone was unconcerned with the situation, busily spearing the raw meat in her bowl. Saya was smiling with eagerness.

The inuyoukai man stepped into the doorway. He was tall with dark blue-black hair. It was tied back rather than long-flowing like Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's. His eyes were dark blue, the streaks on his cheeks a startling turquoise. "Lady Shiroihana," he greeted her with a small bow.

Already Masuyo guessed gloomily that Shimofuri was subservient to Shiroihana. _Everyone_ was. His jaw clenched as he vowed: _I won't be. I refuse to. _

"Welcome, Lord Shimofuri," Shiroihana said, smiling smoothly. "Your wife is doing very well. And your child will arrive in a few short hours."

"I wish to see her," Shimofuri said, stiffly.

"You know birthing is a private affair for women. Lady Ginrei will be fine. She has undergone this trial once before, after all." Shiroihana reached out and touched Hanone, patting the girl. "Sit and talk with me." She motioned to the empty seat that Ginrei normally took up. As Shimofuri obeyed her, stepping tensely into the room to sit where she indicated, Shiroihana made a shooing gesture toward Saya and Masuyo. "Leave us—Hanone, you may stay."

Saya bowed to both inuyoukai leaders but Masuyo excused himself rudely with no gesture of respect at all. He could feel Shiroihana's glare as he left and it sent a rush of bubbling glee through him.

He and Saya walked to the open air of the terrace. Masuyo began carving quickly while Saya spoke with excitement, anticipating Sesshomaru's arrival. Time passed swiftly until Hanone came and asked them to attend lunch. Lunch took place in the tearoom with its simple but elegant walls of white and wood. Masuyo sat close to Saya as usual, but now Shimofuri ate with them, forcing Hanone to squeeze in on Masuyo's other side. Shimofuri sat beside Shiroihana. He had no appetite and ignored the tea and food that the gecko-maids presented to him.

While Masuyo ate quickly, barely chewing food before swallowing, Shimofuri watched the boy, perplexed. At last he asked, "Lady Shiroihana, may I ask who this boy eating with us is?"

"The son of a monk and a renowned demon slayer," she replied blandly as she lifted a teacup to her lips and sipped.

There was a pause while Masuyo ignored their discussion and continued shoveling food down his throat. He hadn't had a chance to eat breakfast with Shiroihana's early dismissal. At his side Saya worked her chopsticks over sweetened plum, eating daintily. Hanone was spearing more raw meat, a fact that Masuyo worked hard to ignore. Shiroihana had nothing but tea and Shimofuri had a mixture of chicken and rice on his plate, but he didn't even look at it.

"Why is he here?" Shimofuri asked.

"He is my hostage," Shiroihana said, lowering her teacup back to the table. "I saved his only sister's life by bringing her soul back from the dead. I charged his parents with the usual currency—a life for a life. The boy is now mine to do with as I please."

Saya set down her chopsticks and cleared her throat. "Lady Shiroihana, please excuse me but you said that Masuyo was for my father. And for me."

"Of course," Shiroihana murmured, smiling. "That is why I acquired him. Has he pleased you Saya?"

"Yes," Saya replied, vehemently. Then, sheepishly, she lowered her eyes, staring steadfastly into her food. "I wish he was my brother," she muttered.

"What was that?" Shiroihana asked, suddenly alarmed.

Masuyo paused over his rice and lowered the bowl from his face. He chewed energetically while he viewed the strange tenseness that had fallen over the room. He had missed most of what Saya had said, but he hadn't thought of it as something that would offend Shiroihana.

In the heavy silence Hanone smacked on her meat, seemingly oblivious to the conversation.

Saya looked up and threw her shoulders back. Masuyo felt her body stiffen next to his. "I said," she began in a louder voice than was necessary, "I wish Masuyo was my brother instead."

Shiroihana's golden eyes narrowed in a way that Masuyo had never seen before. Momentary fear prickled his scalp and his hunger vanished. The bowl in his hands felt awkward and Masuyo longed to put it down but as long as Shiroihana aimed her death stare at Saya he stayed still, frozen. If he moved she might break and actually strike Saya.

Finally Shimofuri said, "Lady Shiroihana, you must forgive young Lady Saya. She is a child. Children say things they do not mean."

Shiroihana shook her head. "Do not make excuses for Saya." She leaned forward slightly and jabbed an accusatory finger at Saya. "This is why your father sent you to stay with me, Saya. Do you understand? _You are being punished."_

Saya's small face wrinkled with pain and anger. "I already knew that!"

Desperate to break the mood, Masuyo purposefully dropped his bowl and chopsticks onto the table. "Oops," he said and gave Shiroihana a hard grin.

For once in his stay there, Shiroihana ignored him, but Hanone and Shimofuri both looked to him with alarm.

"Meisomaru is a blessing on the Western Lands," Shiroihana yelled, actually raising her voice with anger. "You are his sister. You must treat him with honor and respect."

"Do I have to obey him too?" Saya demanded with equal rage. "He's nothing but a brat that slobbers on my clothes and chews up all my shoes! And Father wants me to call him ridiculous things like Chakushi-sama." Saya bared her teeth in a snarl. "He's _not my brother!"_

"He is your brother and you will treat him with proper respect!" Shiroihana hissed. She pounded one fist on the table, making the dishes rattle.

Shimofuri spoke then in a gentler tone, acting as the voice of reason. Masuyo looked to the younger lord with relief and gratitude. "Lady Saya—he _is_ your little brother. Lady Hanone is your sister, right?"

Saya stared into her lap. Her jaw clenched up, the muscles flickering. "Yes. I love my little sister."

Hearing her name, Hanone replied in a tinny, high voice. "I love my sister Saya too." She licked the red, bloody end of one chopstick and asked, "Why is Grandmother yelling at Sister Saya?"

"Because your sister is a fool," Shiroihana snapped, glaring.

Saya didn't look up as she whispered, "_I hate you."_

Suddenly a gecko-maid lurched into the doorway. Its yellow sides fluttered with rapid breathing. "Lady Ginrei—the pup. It is here."

Shimofuri rose instantly and moved out of the room. Shiroihana followed at a much slower pace, pausing to comb her white fluff with both hands, shrug her shoulders, and pat down the sparse, nonexistent wrinkles in her purple kimono. Her eyes stayed on Saya's bowed head the entire time. Masuyo expected her to say something else but she moved to the doorway before turning and murmuring quietly, "You disappoint me, Saya. I thought you would prove your worth as a hanyou. Truly, a shame."

Saya dissolved into wild sobbing as soon as Shiroihana had gone. She lowered her head to the table, brusquely pushing aside the bowl of food. The chopsticks and the bowl flew across the room with only her small touch. Masuyo stared, alarmed by the girl's hidden power. He had halfway forgotten that she was not human. She was hanyou and just as it had affected Inuyasha, Koinu, and to a lesser extent Akisame, it haunted Saya too.

Hanone left her food behind and sat on Saya's opposite side, wrapping her short arms around her older sister, burying her face into Saya's neck and hair. "Don't cry," she whimpered. "I love you. Don't cry."

Masuyo watched them, frozen, stunned. There really was a lot that he didn't understand about the creatures around him, their inner dynamics, but the sound of Saya's sobbing filled him with grief of his own. The elegance of the wood walls around him blurred as childish tears exploded into his eyes. He fought them by imagining Shiroihana's face, her stark, unusual anger. Whatever lied between Saya and her grandmother, he had no doubt that Shiroihana deserved it.

Awkwardly, Masuyo scooted closer to where Saya and Hanone were embracing and wrapped his longer arms around both of them. "It's okay, Saya," he reassured her. "Your father is coming for us soon."

* * *

When the slayers reached the village, Koinu found that it was a bustling place, filled with movement. Many shopkeepers and other people that Koinu suspected were slayers in plainclothes waved and greeted Sango and Miroku.

"You've finally come back!" One man called, rushing for their group. Behind him was a boy that Koinu recognized: Riki, Sango and Miroku's ten year old son.

"Toji!" Miroku yelled, gripping the man's hand as he came close. Riki slipped around the man's side and ran to Sango, wrapping his arms around her and crying with relief.

As they moved through the streets, Koinu felt his face burn with embarrassment. The villagers, slayers, commoners, and merchants alike, eyed him critically. At first Koinu thought it was with hostility, but when he passed by a young woman with her infant strapped to her back, the woman grinned at the sight of him. Koinu saw her lips move, saying a name that was lost in the shuffle and babble of the crowded street: _"Inuyasha."_

Of course the slayers had heard of and seen his father. Koinu held his head higher as he realized that they had mistaken him for his legendary father.

The slayers homecoming was joyful and swift. Koinu watched it as an outsider. The youngest boys hugged Miroku and Sango, then they rushed for Kasai. After her they grinned up at Kohimu and Tisoki and Kohimu, with surprising patience, knelt down and slipped one shoulder out of his robe to show his youngest brothers the scar of the bite that had nearly killed him. Koudo touched it reverently and gasped out, "Whoa…"

Their attention turned to Koinu and Nobe then, in that order. Kohimu introduced Nobe to the boys and Koinu greeted both of them with a warm smile. Riki, who was old enough to remember meeting Inuyasha years ago, controlled his gawking while Koudo stared with wide eyes before nervously asking Koinu if he was a demon.

"Only a little," Koinu smirked and wriggled his ears for the little boy to admire. When Koudo saw the white appendages he giggled and lost all of his initial fear. He pounced on Koinu and reached for his ears. Tolerantly, Koinu allowed the boy to pull and tug on them, shrieking with laughter.

Gradually the sadness came. Riki looked around and saw that Masuyo was missing. The boy's eyes found Nobe, who was close in height and age to Masuyo, but then he scowled, realizing that his parents had brought home a stranger and misplaced Masuyo. He tugged on Miroku's robe and asked, "Where's Masu?"

As the family mourned for the second time over their missing son, Koinu thought of his sister and his father, hoping that they had reached their estate safely. He recalled his sister's tears and prayed that while he was away she would find the strength to stand alone if she needed to.

(A/N: while my younger sister was away this summer I discovered how much I missed her. I suspect both siblings here would miss each other a lot.)

* * *

"It's so fucking quiet here," Akisame grumbled at the dinner table.

"Shut up," Inuyasha snapped, frowning.

"But it is," she whined, sighing. She stared across the table to where Inuyasha was sprawled out over the sitting cushions, taking up one whole side of the table. He had placed one hand on the table and was rapping his claws over the surface, tapping, counting out the seconds and minutes. "Would you quit doing that, Dad?"

"No," Inuyasha told her. "Not until your mother gets back."

"She's coming back with Ramen, right? She said she was getting Ramen from Grandma, right?"

"She'd better," Inuyasha growled.

After Koinu and the slayers had parted from their group, Inuyasha had been further irritated when Shippo decided to head back toward the Middle Lands. The fox was shady about his reasons, but Inuyasha knew it had to do with the hanyou girl Tsukiyume. He thought of the selfish little kit and wanted to shred one of the sitting cushions he was resting on. _Damn that little runt…_

"We should go after her," Akisame suggested. "We';; surprise her at Grandma's. We can have dinner there and eat chalk-ol-it."

"You mean chocolate?" Inuyasha asked, recognizing his daughter's botched mispronunciation. He'd had more years than Akisame, a longer time to wrap his tongue around the different words of Kagome's era. "You like that shit?"

"It's not shit!"

"Feh," Inuyasha grunted, sitting up. His ears quivered for a moment and he shook his head, as if they itched. One eye squinted shut as the hanyou grimaced. He pawed at his face, distracted by momentary pain from debris in his eye. "You're right, Aki. We'll go after her. She would make us wait fucking forever if we didn't anyway."

"Yes!" Akisame hopped to her feet and rushed for the door. Inuyasha shouted after her, trying to make her slow down. As he passed through the door, which she'd left open, Akisame was already at the gate that surrounded their home, tugging on it.

Inuyasha bounded forward, catching up to her and slamming both palms on the gate to keep it shut. "Hey—Aki, when I tell you to wait for me, wait for me. Got it?"

She let go of the gate and nodded, blinking with surprise. Normally Inuyasha scolded Koinu for those minor transgressions, whether the pup had done them alone or with Akisame. She muttered, "Yeah, sorry."

Inuyasha watched her for a moment with a hard expression, then it faded, turning into a smile. "Whenever we get back out of the well, how about I let you use Tetsusaiga to make some diamonds?"

Akisame's mouth fell open with alarm. "Dad, I—I don't know how! I can barely manage a wind scar out of that old thing."

Her father scowled, but his ears stayed erect. "We'll just have to change that, won't we?"

"But the sword doesn't like me."

"Nonsense!" Inuyasha snapped. "You just have to know how to sweet talk it. I'll show you how." He tugged on the gate with a grunt and the wooden structure swung open, lurching with a deep groan.

"Promise?" Akisame asked from behind him as he walked through.

Inuyasha snorted. "Feh! Of course!"

"All the way to diamonds?"

"Hell yeah." Inuyasha let the weight of the gate pull it closed behind them. He picked out a path toward the well through the forest trees and headed that way at a fast walk to begin with. Akisame matched his pace easily, trotting on her shorter legs at his side.

"Why diamonds for sure?" Akisame pressed. Inuyasha picked out her uncertainty. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to make it to diamonds.

"You'll get there eventually but I want to make some of those stupid shiny rocks for your mother."

"For Mom?" As Inuyasha leaped into the first tree at the edge of the road, Akisame followed him but couldn't leap as high. She cried out as one hand slipped from the branch she'd been aiming for. Inuyasha reached down and grabbed her arm, hauling her up with only one hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked, peering into her eye for a moment.

Akisame nodded silently.

"Good." Inuyasha pointed in the direction of the well. "It's that way. Be careful while you're leaping. I don't want to have to bring you to your mom on the other side in fucking pieces to ask one of her doc-tors to sew you up. Got that?"

"I jump with Koinu all the time, Dad," Akisame muttered. "I'll be fine." She stared him down for a moment and then asked, "Why do you need a diamond for Mom?"

"She likes them." Inuyasha rolled his eyes but the smirk on his lips made Akisame stick out her tongue in disgust. She had heard village girls talking and she'd been in her mother's time long enough to understand that jewels were supposed to be aphrodisiacs. Throw some shiny stones at a girl and she got weak in the knees.

"Ew, parental romance is gross." By the time she'd finished speaking Inuyasha was already some distance ahead through the trees, bounding from them effortlessly, outdoing even the squirrels. Alone on her branch, Akisame sighed. "Wait up, Dad! I'll help you make diamonds for Mom!"

* * *

There was no supper that evening. Masuyo sat on the terrace, breathing in the moist, fresh summer air. The cherry wood was supple under his blade, it parted like tender meat. A shape emerged gradually, curved like a banana. Masuyo picked out the details, giving it a sharper spot in the curved middle and indentations at either end that he would have painted if someone had given him the proper supplies. Masuyo enjoyed the scent of his hands after handling the wood, sharp and sweet at once. For one of the first times in weeks he smiled with real enjoyment.

Saya and Hanone had left him alone for the time being and he had heard nothing from Shiroihana, Ginrei, or the guest Shimofuri. There was only the open air of the terrace, his carving knife, and the calming scent of the wood. As the sun dropped lower in the sky it pierced the unending clouds that encircled the Kagetsu palace. Masuyo stared out toward the brilliant orange and closed his eyes, imagining that he was in the forest outside of the slayer's village, searching for pebbles, carving with Kasai, Tisoki, and even Kohimu.

The faint, soft sound of fabric pulled him out of that dream. Masuyo opened his eyes and blinked, stunned that his worst enemy could sneak up on him so completely. While he had daydreamed, Shiroihana had walked right up to him through the mixed gloom and sun of the open-air terrace. She stood before him in her luxurious purple kimono. The white fluff draped over her shoulders and trailed down to the floor. Shiroihana looked down the length of her small nose at him. Her golden eyes were hard and feral.

"I've come to retrieve the toy from you, boy."

"It's finished—I just have to carve its name."

"Do it quickly," Shiroihana ordered.

Masuyo turned the shape over in his hands, banana shaped but sharp in the center. He used the tip of the knife to ingrain the characters into the soft wood. _Hiraikotsu._ He held the shape out to her on one flat palm as soon as he'd finished.

Shiroihana took it and ran her fingers over it, scrutinizing it critically. "Is this some sort of cursed name?" she asked.

"It's the name of the weapon my mother uses to kill monsters—like you," Masuyo snarled.

"How entertaining that it will be an inuyoukai child's chew toy," Shiroihana smirked. She tucked the toy into her kimono at the collar, in the same pocket where she kept the obsidian dagger that she had used to kill the possessed Kasai. When she looked to Masuyo again she said, "I know you could have made a better toy. Tell me, if I told you that I had been cruel to you to make you bond with my granddaughter Saya, what would you feel?"

Masuyo fingered the woodchips lying around his feet and knees. He felt the sharpness of his carving knife and imagined slashing at Shiroihana's legs though he already knew he wouldn't attack her unless she tried to keep him from leaving with Sesshomaru and Saya. "I wouldn't care because you've already taken everything away from me." He flicked a small woodchip at her white-hemmed kimono. "And I would say it was a really lousy way to make two kids bond."

Shiroihana laughed, brief but intense. Masuyo fought his blush, the burning that spread over his face, all the way to his ears.

"A fine answer, boy." She shifted, alarming Masuyo as she knelt down next to him. Her knee smashed the small woodchip that he had flicked at her moments ago. Masuyo averted his eyes from her, staring into the shapeless mist. The sun had been covered up, the grayness of their cloud castle had resumed.

"Slayer boy," Shiroihana said, addressing him solemnly. Masuyo refused to look her in the eye. He waited for her to go on and eventually she did. "When Sesshomaru comes to take Saya with him, you will go with them willingly, correct?"

Masuyo nodded, tense and slow.

"I know that you will resist this, but I must warn you about Saya's more immediate family."

At last Masuyo turned his head cautiously, eyeing Shiroihana warily. "What are you talking about?"

Shiroihana gazed at him sternly. Her golden eyes were serious and something in them had changed, darkening, but it struck Masuyo as different from her other moments of teasing and taunting. Her face was fuller, softer, her eyes duller, her lips slower. She did not pet the white fluff coyly, instead her hands, small and pale, stayed clasped in her lap. "Some years ago a supernatural event transformed Saya's mother—Lady Rin—into a pureblooded inuyoukai."

"I heard about that," Masuyo conceded, reluctantly showing his interest.

"That has since caused difficulty within the family. Saya is here with me because her parents hoped…" Shiroihana's words trailed off and she suddenly looked fatigued. She shook her head before going on, "That doesn't matter now. My hope is that you will guide her to accepting her brother. I believe you know Sesshomaru's own younger brother, the hanyou."

"Inuyasha," Masuyo supplied stiffly.

"Yes, that hanyou. There is a fear within our family that Saya will leave us and put herself in danger. It was my hope that bringing you here would influence Saya. You are one of many children, are you not?"

"Yeah," Masuyo replied, trying to hide the surprise and nervousness out of his voice.

"Good. You will protect my granddaughter, even if it is from herself? I trust you to have the wisdom to see when she will need your guidance." She pinned him with her golden eyes like a butterfly under a dissecting needle.

Slowly, Masuyo nodded, but he was frowning. "But I would do it just for Saya—not for you. Saya doesn't like you either. If you're lying or trying to fool me—I'm not dumb." He moved closer to her, challenging her. "I'll figure it out and I'll do whatever you _don't_ want me to do then."

The darkness in Shiroihana's eyes vanished, replaced by the lighter, sharper expression that Masuyo recognized as her teasing mood. "Of course you will, boy. I would expect nothing else from a slayer. But what is a slayer without his tools?"

Masuyo watched her warily as Shiroihana reached up to her collar and dug about under the white fluff. A moment later she pulled out the leather strap that had been painted black. Masuyo's mouth fell open with astonishment. It was the sling that he had lost in Master Dani's temple, his favorite sling magically materialized in Shiroihana's robes.

The inuyoukai woman held it out to him, inches from his nose. "I believe if I let you have this, slayer, you will be yourself once more, won't you?"

Masuyo snatched it from her and stuffed it hurriedly into his clothes. When he had finished he glared at Shiroihana, refusing to ask how she had come to have the missing sling. "Is that it, my lady?" he asked snidely.

"Yes, it is." She got to her feet without the sound of joints snapping; only the calming swish and pull of fabric. From her superior height she stared down at him. "I trust when I turn my back on you, Masuyo, you won't try to kill me with one of your pebbles."

Masuyo stopped himself from gasping when he heard her say his name. He wanted to question her: _You actually know my name?_ But he guessed that that was what she was looking for. He held his lips tightly together and nodded at her.

"Goodbye, Masuyo." Shiroihana walked away, disappearing into the gray-white mist.

* * *

Only a few hours after arriving home with Koinu and Nobe in tow, Sango began to wonder how she had survived without them. Nobe, eager to impress his hosts to prove himself worthy of joining their team as an apprentice, carried water for her, cleaned the messes made by Koudo and Riki, and he even pinned back the sleeves of his robe and knelt with her and Kasai over the wash tub to scrub dirty clothing. Koinu showed infinite patience, distracting Koudo and Riki from any grief they felt at losing Masuyo. He showed them how to fight with poles until the boys were comfortable practicing alone, then joined Sango, Kasai, and Nobe in the kitchen where he set about cleaning dishes alone in the sink basin, scratching at them with his clawed fingers to remove stubborn, caked-on food.

The work was finished hours before it normally was. Sango retreated to the bedroom to relax and fell instantly asleep, trusting that Koinu and Nobe would handle her youngest children.

Kasai began a carving lesson on the little enclosed verandah in front of Sango and Miroku's home. It was a mudroom of sorts, laid with cheaper wood that had cracked and filled with old, crusted dirt. Sandals of all sizes lined one side of the wall, and on the other a series of boots was laid out, all of them painted black. Only a dot of color closer to the top showed who each pair belonged to. One color for Kohimu, another for Tisoki and so on.

Koudo and Riki had old blocks of wood that they had been working on over time. Koudo was making chopsticks, one of the simplest tasks he could do as a beginner. Riki was working on a round ball, a toy. Nobe and Koinu were also working on chopsticks like Koudo, but unlike all of the other students, and their young teacher Kasai, Koinu didn't bother using a knife. He flicked and dug with his claws and found that everything came easier when he wasn't using a knife.

When the sun set, a burst of pain started in Koinu's ears. He cringed and his fingers lost their grip on the little sliver of wood he'd been carving. It fell from his hands and into his lap.

Kasai looked up with alarm. "What's wrong?"

Koinu didn't answer her as the pain shifted, moving from the top of his skull to the sides where his jaw came together, the place where human ears were located. He pawed at his thighs but his claws had faded, becoming blunt. As suddenly as it had come the pain faded and Koinu found himself blinking down at the sliver of wood he'd been working on. The room seemed several times darker with the loss of his superior part-dog demon vision. Black hair slipped over his shoulders.

"Whoa!" Riki exclaimed. "That was _so_ cool! Can you do it again?"

Koinu lifted his head and smiled faintly. "When the sun comes up, yeah. I'll do it again."

"Does it always hurt?" Kasai asked, concern thickening her voice.

Koinu stared at her with human eyes, the same blue color they had been before but so changed on the inside that he could not clearly make out the shadows on her face, the set of her lips and jaw. Yet the long flow of her black hair was clear, beautiful as it always was. She would take a bath this evening. Koinu repressed the small flutter of excitement that came through him as he realized he would smell her clean skin in the morning and even tonight with his weakened human nose. His mother and his sister, even his father, always smelled delicious after a bath.

It was a different delicious now with Kasai…

"It hurt more tonight than usual because this is the second night," Koinu explained. "But the pain is hard to predict. When I was little I didn't even notice it."

"I wonder if that has to do with your mother's power," Kasai said, her brow furrowing as she considered it.

"What power?" Koudo asked.

"Miko powers," Koinu answered.

Koudo squinted at him through the dark and began nodding. "I didn't know boys could be miko priestesses…"

Nobe smirked, flicking a bit of wood onto the floor. "You should see his little sister!"

Koinu frowned. "Don't talk about Aki."

"Will you kill him like Inuyasha if he doesn't stop?" Kasai asked, teasing. Her teeth gleamed wetly as she smiled.

Koinu fought himself internally, caught between protective irritation at Nobe and the desire to tease Kasai in some way. As usual when she started teasing him, Koinu found his mind blanking, unable to combat her in some clever way involving words. Finally he settled on saying the truth. He shook his head. "No, I wouldn't have to. Aki would kill him first."

"Why?" Nobe asked, genuinely wounded at the news. "What have I done to anger her?"

"Maybe she doesn't like boys," Riki said. "I don't like girls."

"You'll like them someday," Nobe replied sternly. He looked to Koinu and asked again, "What did I do to anger Akisame?"

Koinu scowled and pretended to be absorbed by examining the wood, picking at it with his blunt fingernails. "My sister is not available. She's too young to be thinking about boys."

"Are you sure?" Nobe insisted. "You can be honest with me—"

Kasai interrupted him, clearing her throat. "Nobe, leave it alone. Aki is _not_ available."

As Nobe pouted, Koudo and Riki giggled. "Such a fuss over a stupid girl!" Koudo said, making a face of disgust.

"Girls are not stupid," Koinu corrected him seriously in a dark tone. He gazed at Kasai and smiled coyly. "Kasai is a girl and she always beats me when we fight."

"No way," Riki gasped. "Kasai, you fight with Koinu? Koinu's part-demon!"

Kasai didn't answer but the small smile on her lips as she worked the carving knife over the bone was enough of a prompt for both Riki and Koudo to speak up, dropping the wood and their own knives to plead her to show them. As her little brothers tugged on her sleeves, Kasai sighed and set down the bone and the knife. She threw Koinu a mock glare. "Why Son of Dog—you are such a liar."

"See how she insults me?" Koinu asked Nobe, shaking his head. When he saw that Koudo and Riki were watching him, Koinu added, "See, girls aren't stupid, but they are very, very mean. That's why Aki doesn't like Nobe."

"Liar," Kasai repeated, a little more intensely.

"We should settle this in a fight," Koinu suggested, grinning. "Human against human—I've never fought you like this before." He dropped his voice into a somber tone when he looked at Koudo and Riki. "She'll beat me even more now than she did before!"

"We'll see about that," Kasai said, rolling her eyes. "Promise not to let me win?"

"I would never do such a thing," Koinu announced, opening his mouth wide as if he were shocked at the accusation. He thumped his chest with one fisted hand. "This one fights to win, always."

Without breaking her stare with Koinu, Kasai ordered, "Riki, Koudo—go get the fighting poles."

The little group spilled out into the sweet, nighttime air. The sky was still faintly blue. The hills and houses glowed, reluctant to turn to the full black darkness of the night. In the empty street outside of Miroku and Sango's home, Koinu and Kasai took up positions ten feet apart, standing stiff and at attention. Nobe watched with awe as Koudo went to Kasai, giving her a fighting pole, and Riki handed Koinu a different pole. Both were made of painted bamboo, straight and hollow.

"Round one!" Riki hollered and clapped his hands in the same moment as Koudo, who was standing at his side.

Koinu advanced first with confident but light steps. He lifted the pole and changed his grasp on it, pointing one end like the blade of a sword. Kasai stayed in her spot, holding her pole out in the same way. When they met, touching the poles together and tensing them against each other, Koudo shouted impatiently, "Go Koinu!"

"Hah!" Koinu shouted, drawing back his pole and lashing out at Kasai. She evaded the blow by ducking. When she struck at Koinu's legs from her lowered position Koinu didn't move fast enough. The bamboo thumped on his legs and Koinu yelped, hopping awkwardly out of her range.

They circled each other like sharks for a moment, sizing one another up. Kasai held her ground, refusing to lead the attack. Koinu did it for her, charging forward, slashing with the pole. He feinted one way and then whipped around, digging the edge of the pole under Kasai's guard. She cried out with surprise as the pole flew into the air, out of her reach. She blinked with surprise when Koinu jabbed the end of his pole to her neck. The cold, straight edge of the bamboo was cold on her skin.

"You win," she said.

Koinu withdrew several steps, rolling his shoulders and twirling the pole, testing its weight.

"I didn't know you were so skilled with the poles," Kasai admitted as she moved to retrieve her lost bamboo rod.

"I'm not," Koinu responded. "You're not trying."

"Liar," Kasai murmured. She glanced to her little brothers and saw that they were grinning with glee. Nobe meanwhile was silent, but his eyes were alight with fascination. "Round two," she called, commencing the next battle.

Koinu lunged forward with his pole at the ready. Kasai whipped out of his way, lifting the pole as she moved, thwacking Koinu in the gut. With a growling sound, which was in a much higher pitch than normal, Koinu pivoted around and clashed his pole to hers. The bamboo rods clicked hollowly. Koinu started to fall back but Kasai anticipated the move and jammed her pole at Koinu's legs. He tripped but tucked his body as he fell; rolling, but he lost his pole in the process.

When he sat up he found that Kasai was already in front of him, pushing the end of her bamboo rod into Koinu's face. Koinu lifted his hands up, submitting. "I give up."

"It's a tie!" Koudo yelled gleefully. "Round three winner is champion!"

A few paces away from Kasai, Koinu stopped, lifting the pole and digging his toes into the soil. "Round three!" he yelled. Letting out a cry, Koinu raced for Kasai and they clashed, smashing the bamboo rods together.

On the sidelines all three of their spectators cheered with excitement.

Rather than separating, Koinu maneuvered around, striking at Kasai's shoulder. She blocked it and then jabbed at his side with the opposite end of her pole. Koinu sidestepped and parried the blow. As Kasai ducked another attempted strike, she caught the gleam in Koinu's gaze, following her movement. She recognized the look, understanding that he was going to purposefully lose. He would not do it easily, but Kasai planned then to outsmart him.

Rather than trying to attack the belly that he left exposed, Kasai turned her back toward him as she twisted around, exposing herself completely to him. Koinu moved close to her and blocked her pole, ignoring the chance she'd given him to end the battle completely. Kasai freed her pole from the block and pushed her pole against his, hard. She leaned as close to him as she could with the poles in the way and whispered: "Why don't you win this one?"

"You're not trying," Koinu said, curling his lips in an expression that looked like a snarl but was in fact a toothy grin.

Kasai leaped backward and faced him from a distance. Like matador and bull the fighters paused, reconsidering. Finally Kasai shouted in her high voice and rushed for Koinu, lifting the pole high in the air, aiming for his head.

Koinu braced himself, slapping her pole with his own. The blow, although not very powerful, easily knocked Kasai's pole out of her hands. As it clanged on the dirt and gravel of the road and then rolled over onto a little swathe of grass, Koudo and Riki began to cheer with delight. "Koinu won! Boys rule! Girls really are stupid!"

Koinu was deaf to their shouting. His shoulders rose and fell as he breathed and stared at Kasai's open, limp hands. She was panting with exertion too but a smug smile covered her lips, crinkling her eyes. Quietly, she said, "I got you."

"I should pummel you," Koinu muttered.

Kasai held out her hands, palms up, defenseless and unarmed. "Who's stopping you?"

The smile, the mischievous glint in her eyes, and the long flow of her black hair as she turned around and lightheartedly scolded her brothers for cheering against her all conspired to keep Koinu where he was, holding the pole, unable to speak. Eventually he collected the poles, carrying them in, responding only halfheartedly when Koudo and Riki came to congratulate him. He watched Kasai usher them inside and order Nobe to draw water to heat. It was bath time.

Koudo and Riki raced to help Nobe with the water at the pump behind the house. As their forms disappeared into the darkness Kasai walked up the three small stairs into the enclosed verandah and began washing her feet before entering the house.

Koinu set down the poles inside the enclosed verandah, slinking in behind Kasai, listening to the chatter of the water as she wiped down her feet. "You should have won," Koinu told her.

"The better fighter should win," Kasai answered, patting down her feet with an old cloth and moving out of the way for Koinu to wash his feet as well, but Koinu didn't sit at the little water bucket immediately. He stared at her in the dark and caught the sheen of sweat on her brow.

"Your brothers shouldn't think less of you because you're a girl," Koinu insisted.

"They don't," Kasai murmured. "It's just their age. They're too young to understand. They don't really see me as a girl, just their sister. Besides…" Kasai dropped the old rag down next to the water bucket and took a step closer to Koinu, "You always let me win. I decided it was time for me to let you win."

A tense moment passed as Kasai stared up at him, searching his face. Her lips formed the tender smile that made Koinu hold his breath as his stomach flipped inside his body. Then Kasai started speaking hesitantly, nearly whispering, "I couldn't tell you before but…" she broke off and shook her head, averting her eyes. "You're not…"

"Not what?" Koinu asked, trying to catch her gaze again.

"You're not ugly," she stammered with nervousness. "I mean if someone—like Nobe—stares at you when you're human, it's not because there's something wrong." She drew in a shaky breath and turned, looking toward the closed sliding door that led inside the house. "It's because there's something right that people stare."

Tentatively, Koinu reached out and touched her cheek. Startled, Kasai looked back at him, her eyes wide and wet. Koinu could feel her breath puffing against his cheek, the scent surprisingly sweet like the night air outside. Before he gave himself time to think about it, Koinu pressed his face close to hers, touching his skin to hers. Her cheek was warm and soft on his, her breathing came in quick spurts, whispering into his black hair and onto his human ear.

Koinu closed his eyes and lifted his arms, wrapping them around her shoulders, pulling her closer—and then he yelped with shock and stumbled back from her, bumping into the water bucket and falling clumsily onto his hands and knees.

"I'm _so_ sorry," Kasai cried above him. One hand was clenched in a fist and held back, as if it had a mind of its own and would run away if she released it. "I didn't mean to do it. Really, Koinu, I didn't…"

Koinu's face burned as he got gradually to his feet, trying to ignore the lingering sensation of warmth on his backsides. Kasai had reached behind him when he had embraced her and gripped one butt cheek. He shook his head, trying to dismiss the event. "Don't worry about it."

"No," Kasai murmured, sounding stricken. "I'm sorry…"

At that moment the sound of laughter reached them, rising up out of the darkness outside the verandah. Koudo, Riki, and Nobe had arrived at the steps, each carrying one or in Nobe's case, two heavy buckets of water. Koinu moved in and helped the littest boy with his load while he ascended the three little steps into the verandah. By the time Koinu turned around to look back at Kasai she had slipped inside like a ghost, a figment of his imagination.

* * *

_A/N: I promise Return's update will arrive shortly, hopefully in a matter of days after I've recovered sufficiently from painkillers, pain, and such. Prayer...We'll just say this extra long chapter is supposed to make up for my absence. Full of all sorts of Masu-Saya/Rin-Sess hints and some Koinu-Kasai action...  
_


	38. Homesickness

A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! A **note** for myself and for those that missed it last chapter: _Meisomaru_ was the name Shiroihana used when referencing Saya's younger brother. Really I've been thinking that Masuyo and Saya are the intertwining part of _Innocence._ A further story with them in it would be sequel to both _Return_ and this story. The events of _Innocence_ have brought Masuyo into the Western Lands with Saya/Sess and company while the events of _Return_ have shaped Saya into what you are seeing here. In a way, _Innocence_ is a sequel to _Return_ too. I enjoy the intertwining. Hehe. But my favorite part of this chapter is Aki. Hands down.

…dabada…vusasa…

Disclaimer:

Last Chapter: Shiroihana and Saya had an _interesting _fight. Shiroihana asked Masu to make a toy so he made a wooden Hiraikotsu for her that would be passed on to Ginrei and Shimofuri's new son. Shiroihana also had an _interesting _discussion where she was seemingly open and frank with Masu. She actually used his name then too, amazingly. Koinu reached the slayer's village. Shippo went back to the Middle Lands rather than home with IY, Aki, and Kagome. IY promised Aki that he would teach her the adamant barrage to make a diamond for Kagome. Koinu and Kasai fought together and Koinu won. They had a moment together…

* * *

**Homesickness**

During the morning meal the silence was thick and impenetrable. Masuyo almost felt he preferred being taunted to the heavy silence that tried to strangle him. The tenseness within the castle seemed to have affected the cooks too. Masuyo's rice was only partly cooked. Some grains crunched against his teeth, making him grimace and the seasoning was unevenly distributed.

Shiroihana, Saya, Shimofuri, and Hanone were with Masuyo that morning, but only the slurping sounds as Hanone ate her meat filled the room. Shiroihana did not touch her green tea though she whisked it with a chopstick made of ivory. Masuyo watched the chopstick, admiring the artistry that had crafted it, a carver on a level above even Kohimu or Sango herself.

Saya had not spoken to Masuyo since the previous day at lunch when she had incited Shiroihana's deep rage. Masuyo hadn't forgotten Shiroihana's strange words. It was almost a warning and the icy seriousness of it made him shudder as if he'd just been showered in cold water.

After the meal Saya and Hanone departed with Shiroihana, though where they went and why Masuyo couldn't begin to guess. There were portions of the palace, dark stairwells and grand halls that he hadn't ventured into. Shimofuri left Masuyo alone in the luxurious room with its painted walls and disappeared too, but Masuyo thought he knew where Shimofuri was going. He had passed through the hall where Saya, Hanone, and Ginrei slept at night and heard the wailing cries of the new baby, the pup. He wondered if Shiroihana had really given the toy _Hiraikotsu_ to Ginrei and explained its origin.

Masuyo cleaned with the gecko-maids, who flicked their tongues at him in agitation when he broke a teacup and then hissed at him until he trotted away, leaving the rest of the work to them. He crossed through the abandoned, eerily silent halls of Kagetsu palace until he reached one of the open-air terraces.

In the dense, misty-white air, Masuyo felt the coolness of the handrails and then the whimsical carvings in the columns that supported the roof. At one corner Masuyo sat and stuck his head between the wooden railings to peer down. The mist shrouded the mountainside where he assumed the castle was perched, but in reality Masuyo had never seen the solid surface below Kagetsu's terraces. It could have been levitating, floating like a hawk riding the wind.

"Be careful, boy," a male voice said, startling Masuyo into bumping his head on the railing.

He pulled out and looked in the direction of the voice. Appearing out of the mist was Shimofuri, dark like a shadow with his blue-black hair and his gray robes.

Masuyo bowed to the inuyoukai lord, embarrassed at being caught doing nothing but daydreaming and staring into the white nothingness of the mist. "Lord Shimofuri."

"Lady Shiroihana has said that you are her hostage, the child of a demon slayer," Shimofuri murmured quietly. His booted feet came to within two feet of Masuyo's head and stopped there.

Masuyo let out a puff of air and watched it fog the dark wood of the floor under his face. He had not risen out of his bow yet. He didn't know Shimofuri. The lord might be harsh if the proper respect weren't shown to him. Especially if the disrespectful one was a lowly human.

"I understand that young Lady Saya is fond of you." There was a pause and then Shimofuri asked, "What is your name, young man?"

Masuyo sat up at last and wiped at his face, blinking with moisture from the condensing mist. "My name's Masuyo, sir." For the first time Masuyo realized that Shimofuri was not alone out on the terrace in the midmorning summer air. In the inuyoukai lord's arms was a bundle swathed in gray fabric that nearly matched Shimofuri's robes, which was why Masuyo hadn't noticed it before.

Shimofuri noticed the young slayer's stare and smiled, a small and warm expression that startled Masuyo, making him look away. "This is my son," Shimofuri said. "If you want to look at him you may."

Masuyo got up and cautiously peered into the bundle that Shimofuri lowered for him to see. The child was bigger than Masuyo recalled his youngest brother Koudo being when he had been born. The infant's skin was pale but its cheeks were rosy. Sharp, pointed ears stuck out in place of the normal rounded shapes Masuyo had expected. Blue marks, one on each cheek, stuck out against the pink skin below the baby's closed eyes. Black hair topped his head.

Uncertainly Masuyo pulled away and in a stiff, formal way, he said, "The infant looks like Lord Shimofuri."

Shimofuri's smile had not faded but he made no answer as he held the child closer and touched its face tenderly. Masuyo watched him for a moment and then asked, "Is this Lord Shimofuri's only child?"

The inuyoukai lord nodded briefly. "Yes, but I hope for many." Gradually Shimofuri turned his attention more to Masuyo. "Lady Shiroihana tells me that you were born into a large human family. The slayer family acquainted with my cousin Inuyasha, correct?"

Masuyo let out a short, frustrated sigh. "Yes."

"I understand the pain of losing someone I love to Sesshomaru's family," Shimofuri muttered in a dark tone. His brow had furrowed as he stared at Masuyo.

Masuyo made no reply, but he had noticed the distinct way that Shimofuri didn't give Sesshomaru the proper title.

"If you should ever need help, Masuyo," Shimofuri went on more brightly, "I will offer you my help."

Masuyo bowed awkwardly. "Thank you, Lord Shimofuri."

"Someone's coming," Shimofuri announced, jerking his head in the direction of sounds that Masuyo couldn't hear until several more moments had passed.

A shape appeared out of the mists, small and dressed in purple with white hair and amber eyes. "Masuyo!" Saya called. She slowed when she reached them and offered a bow to Shimofuri. "Lord Shimofuri—sorry to bother you but I've come for Masu."

"Of course," Shimofuri replied, smiling as Saya snatched Masuyo's hand and pulled him away down the misty path. Masuyo fought her for a time, straining to get a last look at Shimofuri, to understand what the lord had meant. Was it a suggestion? Or was it a trap?

"Where are we going?" he asked when Saya slid the door leading to the inside of the palace open. She ran through it, tugging Masuyo behind her as if he were a tethered horse dragged by his halter. Masuyo tried to close the door but Saya's strength surprised him, tearing his grip from the door latch. "Saya!"

"Father's come to take us home!"

They ran until Masuyo was panting, their feet clattering over the floors until they reached the entrance to the audience room. As Saya slid it open for them, Masuyo recognized the white walls painted with snowflakes. It was the room where he, Kagome, and Miroku had sat and originally discussed rescuing Kasai. As he stepped onto the matting in the room, Masuyo felt a deep foreboding spread over his limbs, making him feel ten pounds heavier.

He and Saya sat on the floor next to one another, just inside the door. Sesshomaru was closest to the exit that led out to the massive stairway that left Kagetsu palace behind. Shiroihana sat on a small platform like a queen, presiding over her son, her granddaughter, and the helpless slayer boy. Saya bowed to her grandmother but Masuyo stayed upright, glaring.

Shiroihana smiled at him and then turned back to Sesshomaru. "I have taken fine care of little Saya."

"I can see," Sesshomaru said, blandly. "I have come to take her home."

"How is Lady Rin? Has she reached a decision?"

Sesshomaru inclined his head in a tiny motion. "She is well. The child is female. She has decided to keep it."

Shiroihana leaned forward with enthusiasm. She made a cooing noise like joy. "How lovely! Did this decision please you, Sesshomaru?"

"That is none of your concern," Sesshomaru told her. His lips curled slightly, hinting at his discomfiture. "I have not come to socialize with you, Mother." He lifted one arm and motioned at Saya and Masuyo. "Come here to me, we are leaving."

"Very well," Shiroihana said, sitting back and rolling her shoulders, adjusting the white fluff. She watched her own hand moving over the fur as she said, "It has been a pleasure to have my granddaughter here, Sesshomaru. You may let her stay when the new pup arrives if you find it necessary."

Saya scampered to her father, throwing her arms around the tall, stately inuyoukai lord. Masuyo moved gradually after her, uncomfortable and awkward. He was aware the entire time of Shiroihana's eyes on him. He dreaded her speaking but knew that it was inevitable.

"Sesshomaru," Shiroihana called as her son turned toward the door leading out to the stairway and the verandah. Even though he didn't turn back to look at her, Shiroihana continued, "Watch over the boy. Keep him close—don't set him free."

Masuyo glowered over his shoulder at Shiroihana and his hands clenched up into fists. Shiroihana returned his look with a smug smile. She rose to her feet and moved from the platform toward the inner door of the white room. Her white hair swished at her shoulders elegantly. Then she had vanished and Saya shut the door they had walked through.

Masuyo gazed out at the verandah around them, the thick, heavy mist. It slowed his breathing and sped up his heart as his body tried to panic. The air was so thick that it was hard to breathe. It was like being stifled. Masuyo walked after Sesshomaru and Saya, trailing them by an extra five feet.

As they reached the stairway Masuyo took a deep breath, resigning himself to the long trek and to the unknown. He admired Saya's white hair and the long grace of Sesshomaru's tread and his lithe body. This was Masuyo's bizarre, unfriendly family now. He clung to the promise Saya had made. When she had control over his fate she would set him free. He had only to wait until then.

* * *

"All right," Inuyasha growled. He pulled Tetsusaiga from its hilt with a harsh scream of metal on metal. The blade transformed at once into the huge, shining fang, filled with power. For show Inuyasha held it with one hand parallel to the ground. He scuffed at the grass with one bare foot, checking its basic composition for a moment. "Take it, Aki."

His daughter stepped closer timidly, extending both hands as Inuyasha passed the blade to her. Akisame blinked unsteadily as its full weight hit her. She felt her palms itching, tingling with the demonic energy within the fang. She thought of her grandfather, the legendary man and beast that had given her father his incredible power even as a hanyou.

This was the second day that she had practiced with the Tetsusaiga under her father's tutelage. On the first day it had been a struggle to remember how to keep the sword from shrinking at her touch. What she had said before wasn't untrue—Tetsusaiga didn't like her very much. It quivered, fighting her. Akisame doubted her own demonic powers; they were too weak to control the sword. Inuyasha had never said that, and Akisame was too frightened to say it aloud, but she suspected it was on both their minds, and on the sword's, if it could be said to possess a mind.

She had managed a few weak wind scars with Inuyasha's encouragement, and a few of the secrets he used for pleasing the sword the night before, but now Inuyasha wanted her to try the adamant barrage, the blast that created diamonds.

"Warm up with a wind scar," Inuyasha suggested, stepping sideways and back to be out of her way. He patted her back, offering reassurance.

Akisame stamped one foot and held the Tetsusaiga parallel to the ground, concentrating. She reached deep within her, to the place that sometimes fueled her rage and always provided fertile ground for her temper. She found the energy of her inuyoukai grandfather there and felt the Tetsusaiga pulse happily in her hands, recognizing her as family of sorts. Now she did the most embarrassing thing, a fact that Koinu had never told her about, possibly because he didn't know…

Lowering her chin in the same instant that she raised the sword to strike, Akisame whispered, "Gagaga—zubaba…" The sword slammed down, the hilt heated in her hands and Akisame cringed, closing her eyes tightly. Air ripped around her, screeching. Then came the sound and the scent of torn soil and cut grass.

Inuyasha slapped her back enthusiastically. "All right! You did it! That was a good one too! You're as good as Koinu is now."

Akisame let out a long breath. "Are you sure I have to say that ridiculous thing?"

"What thing?" Inuyasha asked, his ears perking up. His golden eyes were bright with glee.

"You know…"

"No, I don't—but you didn't call out your attack. What if there were some village kids running through the opening here or some shit? You _always_ have to shout your attack!"

Akisame sighed. "Never mind. Let's make Mom a diamond."

Inuyasha nodded and began instructing her on the changed style of attack. The adamant barrage required more of a twisting motion while the wind scar was more forgiving. Inuyasha demonstrated while holding a stick, lifting it over his head and turning on one heel as he swept the stick down in an arc.

"Be absolutely sure—fucking positive—that no one is in the way. Got it?"

Akisame rolled her eyes. "Duh."

"Oh, and you have to talk to Tetsusaiga again," he said, snatching the sword from her and lifting it over his head in the motion he had just demonstrated for the adamant barrage. The sword gleamed brightly as he made the practice motions. Akisame heard him muttering as he moved and her shoulders sagged as she realized that her father was about to tell her another secret incantation that would impress Tetsusaiga into working properly. _Please let it be better than gagaga and zubaba._

After the practice motion, Inuyasha passed Tetsusaiga back to her with a hard, pensive look. "I think the words this time are _dabada_ and _yusasa._"

"Dabada-yusasa," Akisame repeated, staring blankly at her father. "Are you serious?"

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Inuyasha demanded, genuinely confused. "Do you want to make diamonds or not?"

Frowning, Akisame turned and took up the stance Inuyasha had just shown her. She let Tetsusaiga shrink while she practiced the motions, listening for her father in case he found a mistake she needed to correct but none came.

Finally, with a deep breath, Akisame found the demonic power within her core to transform the sword, waking it. Then she hefted it high and muttered, "Dabada-yusasa…" she broke off and shouted the attack, "Adamant barrage!"

Wind whipped back and hit her in the face, bringing little chunks of debris. Akisame cringed but tried to peek through lidded eyes at the carnage of what she had done with Tetsusaiga's help. The clearing, healthy, green, and cheery in the summer sunlight, was torn and shattered as the destructive wind carved through it like a knife through butter. Flying out from the whirlwind were tiny sparkling shapes like shattered glass.

Overall the barrage was smaller than one Inuyasha would've used in battle by several massive degrees, but that hardly mattered. As the dust settled and the last of the diamonds clattered to the ground, ranging from the size of gravel to little more than glitter, Inuyasha grinned with pride. The next slap on Akisame's back nearly knocked her flat on her face.

"Would you cut that out, Dad?" She plunged Tetsusaiga into the ground and swung her arm around as if Inuyasha's playful punch has knocked the joint out of the socket.

"Don't be such a baby," Inuyasha laughed. He pointed a claw out to the diamonds that now littered the small clearing. "Which one do you think your mother would like?"

Akisame shrugged. "Anything would be my guess."

"Pick one out," Inuyasha ordered, still grinning with every white tooth showing.

Akisame pulled Tetsusaiga out of the ground and handed the dinged up fang to her father, letting him sheathe it before she walked into the destroyed clearing. The ground was loose beneath her feet, several times her toes or her heel sank into the loosened dirt, nearly tripping her. When she saw a particularly shiny set of diamonds she knelt down and picked over them until she found one that looked close enough to a Zales commercial that she'd seen on _tell-a-vision_ the night before while they ate at her grandmother's in the modern era.

She stood up and waved at her father. "How about this one?"

"Great," Inuyasha called, checking the sun to guess what time it was. "Take it and let's get going home."

* * *

"I'm sorry for having to do this," Miroku said, giving a small duck of his head. His fingers idly traced the characters for purification and demonic auras that he'd painted on the sutras earlier that morning.

Koinu shrugged. "It doesn't hurt that much," he lied.

Sango and Miroku had started Koinu's day in this way. After establishing who would sleep where the previous night, a difficult thing to manage in a household now numbering nine individuals, Koinu had found himself in the same room as Tisoki, Kohimu, and Nobe. Getting to sleep and staying there had been difficult, nearly impossible. After weeks of travel, Koinu had adjusted to sharing a bedroll and his blankets with another person, usually Akisame. He missed her presence, the comforting scent of family and the light whistle and wheeze as she breathed so close to him.

Homesickness started then and when Miroku slid open the door to their room the next morning, an hour after sunrise, Koinu had only just fallen asleep.

Tisoki and Nobe rose first, following the smell of cooking food. Kohimu tried to follow them but Miroku ordered his eldest son to sleep a little longer instead. Kohimu's injury, the bite wound that had nearly claimed his life, was still tender and limited Kohimu's strength. Sleep was the best way to assure swift and complete healing. Later in the morning Sango would bring her son an herbal infusion to accompany his breakfast, then send him after his brothers.

Koinu ignored his melancholy and his fatigue to leave the room with Tisoki and Nobe. From the smaller second bedroom on the upper floor Kasai, Koudo, and Riki came out. Koudo and Riki bickered together while Kasai shepherded them down the stairs to where breakfast was waiting.

Breakfast was surprisingly somber, despite the number of people partaking in it. Some small ritual was lost without Masuyo's presence and Koinu sensed the family's brooding sadness. One spot was strategically left empty, and when Nobe sat in it Riki scolded him. "That's Masu's spot!"

Nobe flinched and muttered, "Sorry."

As they finished breakfast Sango gave out instructions. Tisoki and Nobe would clean the kitchen until Kohimu was up and fed, then they would take Nobe together and begin some basic training. Kasai would accompany Sango to the market, as would Koudo and Riki to help carry things back home. Koinu was left with Miroku for something special. When Koinu saw the monk only a few minutes later, sitting in the small office he had set up in a space below the stairs, converting what should have been a place for storage, he knew exactly what unpleasantness was in store. Miroku was writing out sutras in a careful hand with a charcoal pen.

When the others had cleared out on their various assignments, Miroku brought Koinu into the kitchen and sat across from him at the table. He laid the sutras out for Koinu to see and began his apology awkwardly. "Let's begin, then."

Koinu's ears fell flat in spite of himself as he readied himself, stiffening his spine. Miroku gripped the bottom of one sutra, pinching it in a way that forced the paper to stand upright, allowing the characters of the written spell to stand out clearly. Miroku's lips moved but Koinu couldn't read them before the sutra had descended onto his forehead. A cracking sound rent the air around Koinu's head and sharp pain spurted through his skull.

Koinu clenched his jaw, stifling the small cry that rose in his throat.

As suddenly as the pain had come, it vanished. Koinu opened his eyes and saw the scorched, blackened edges of the sutra still stuck to his forehead. He reached up and touched it but the sutra slipped off, falling harmlessly to the table. He lifted his eyes to Miroku and tried to wiggle his ears, but they had changed position, glued to the side of his head.

Miroku nodded sternly. "I see."

"What?" Koinu prompted. "What is it?"

"I wondered if spells would purify you, or if only direct touch would do it. It seems you are not _immune_ necessarily to any purification energy." Miroku's expression hinted at failure and Koinu's shoulders sank, as if the fault were solely his.

"Now what?" Koinu asked.

"We have to wait until your youkai power returns. I don't know how long that will take." He paused and then, with sudden interest he asked, "Can you perhaps willingly bring it back?"

Koinu shrugged. "If I could do you think I'd keep transforming after the new moon?"

Miroku frowned. "You have a point—but could you try…?"

Frustrated already, Koinu pulled on his black hair, wincing when it tugged on his sensitive scalp. He reached through the thick, black mat of it and touched his ears, admiring the unusual roundness and the lack of fur. He searched his mind, wondering if he could find something to stimulate his inuyoukai strength. If he had held Tetsusaiga the sword could arouse those powers, tugging on them the same way that Koinu had pulled on his hair. Anger was another way, or the survival instinct—fear. But what Koinu really felt in that moment, the faint sense of failure, and of homesickness, the melancholy mixture was the exact opposite for encouraging the fourth of his soul that was inuyoukai.

"Perhaps this…" Miroku said, grabbing up a sutra from inside his robe, one he hadn't put on the table, hadn't thought to use.

"What is it?"

"A rare spell that I learned a long time ago—back when you were just a baby, I think. Most spells are concerned with killing demonic energy or disrupting it to expose a true form. A spell to expose a true form influences youkai energy by _increasing_ it. In the case of a hanyou it may not work the way we want it because you have _two_ true forms. The appearance you have now is _normal_ for you at certain times. Thus this may not help at all, but we could try anyway." Miroku lifted the sutra the same way he had with the first, pinching it at the bottom. "Do you wish to try?"

"Yes, it can't hurt can it?" Koinu asked, trying to smile. In truth transforming would hurt no matter how it was done, though if his inuyoukai side regenerated on its own the transformation would hurt significantly less.

Miroku stretched his arm forward and this time gently placed the little bit of paper onto Koinu's chest. Koinu winced, expecting pain, but none came. The paper fluttered off Koinu's chest, showing no sign of sticking at all. Koinu cursed inwardly, but when he glanced up at Miroku the monk wore a surprised look. "What is it?"

"That spell _should_ have stuck on you, even if it didn't work."

"It's because I don't have enough inuyoukai power to activate it," Koinu muttered, sullenly.

"No," Miroku said and shook his head, perplexed. "It's unusual…" He reached into his robes and began flipping through a large loose-leaf booklet of prewritten sutras, searching for something.

"What are you going to try now?"

"I won't be trying anything. _You_ will be."

Koinu blinked and sat back. "What?"

Miroku tore out one of the sutras and held it out to Koinu, letting the paper flop over limply. When Koinu hesitated, Miroku gave it a quick waggle. "Take it and hold it as I held the others."

Pursing his lips with uncertainty, Koinu took hold of the little note, expecting a spark or some other painful punishment for holding something with spiritual power. Nothing happened and gradually Koinu brought the sutra closer to himself and adjusted his hold to mimic Miroku's. "What do I do with it now?"

"Use it on me," Miroku ordered in an almost bright voice.

"What?" Koinu barked, shaking his head in the negative. "I can't do that…"

"You've always _assumed_ that, but you are human now. Perhaps your mother's miko powers will appear." Miroku reached across the table to manipulate Koinu's hold on the sutra and then sat back once he was satisfied. "There—this sutra is a restraining one, designed to work on humans with spiritual power, such as myself."

Miroku placed his hand on the table, palm up. "Put the sutra on my hand after reading it aloud. That will activate it. If you have even the slightest spiritual power the sutra will use it and bind my hand."

Stiffly, Koinu murmured the characters written on the sutra and then, mimicking Miroku again, slapped it onto the monk's hand. Immediately he felt a tingling in the fingers that had touched the sutra, and on Miroku's hand the little slip of paper flashed purple and glowed. Koinu rubbed his hands on his thighs, trying to relieve them of the tingling while Miroku strained, struggling to move his hand.

"You've done it," Miroku said, suddenly grinning. "I don't know how it's possible, but _you have spiritual powers."_

"Why do my fingers itch?" Koinu muttered, still rubbing them.

"I suspect the energy is at conflict with your inuyoukai heritage—but it is there nonetheless when it shouldn't be." Miroku motioned with his chin. "Take the sutra off."

Koinu did as he asked but handled the smoldering bit of paper as little as he could, dropping it away from Miroku's hand onto the table. He brushed his hand on his chest and frowned.

"Is it painful to touch?" Miroku asked, staring at Koinu, searching his face with suddenly widened violet eyes.

Koinu hesitated. "…Almost…No. Not really."

Miroku smirked as he lifted his hand from the table. "It must be more than a little distracting because you didn't notice that you have regained your inuyoukai powers."

With a start, Koinu looked down and saw that his black hair had changed into white. He flicked his ears atop his head and felt them move easily. "Wow…"

"Very interesting indeed," Miroku agreed, smiling with amusement.

* * *

"Akisame?" Kagome called as she treaded down the hall. She slid open the door to her daughter's bedroom and found it empty. Akisame had put away her bed in the hidden cabinet in the floor of her room to make more space, leaving the room virtually empty. Along one wall, hanging on improvised wire and wooden hangers that attached to a beam running along the ceiling, Akisame had hung up a varied assortment of clothes. Loose pants like the kind a boy would wear swayed just barely beside silken robes that Inuyasha had bought her as a young child. Beyond those Kagome saw hakama and haori, simple under robes beside silky ones, long socks sewn in a style Kagome would have worn as a schoolgirl, and then the split-toe design native to Japan.

"Akisame…?" Kagome stepped into the room and pushed aside a pair of blue hakama. "Are you in here?"

When no answer came she turned and left the room without bothering to slide the door closed. She walked past the doorway to her and Inuyasha's room, certain that Akisame wouldn't be there. That left the bathroom at the far end of the hall and Koinu's empty room. Both doors were closed, but Kagome heard the faint tinkling sound of water and headed to the bathroom. She knocked and called her daughter's name.

"I'm taking a bath! What do you want, Mom?"

Kagome considered scolding her daughter for the sharp tone she'd used but shook her head, already knowing it would do little but irritate Akisame. "Where is your father?" she asked.

"Dad's uh…" The water slurped and sloshed and Kagome felt a slight vibration through the floor, telling her that Akisame had gotten out of the tub. The sound of water dripping on the floor further confirmed it.

"Use a towel!" Kagome yelled. Akisame had a habit of shaking first, leaving a wide-flung arc of water spray everywhere for others to trip on.

"Yeah," Akisame answered, grumblingly.

"Where did you say your father was?" Kagome repeated.

"Nowhere," Akisame replied.

Kagome frowned, picking out Akisame's rather obvious lie. She let her voice drop in warning. "Where is he, Akisame?"

"I don't fucking know! Get off my back about it!"

"You've been with him constantly since we came home—I know you know where he is. I haven't seen him since he got up and left at dawn and he missed lunch. What is he up to?"

Akisame growled on the other side of the door and Kagome backed away from the door as she heard her daughter's bare feet on the floor, heading her way. A second later Akisame had thrown open the door and stuck her head out to glare at her mother viciously. "He isn't in trouble if that's what you're thinking," she snapped.

Kagome eyed her suspiciously. "Did he go after Koinu?"

Akisame pulled back with surprise. "No! Of course not!"

Kagome shook her head with confusion. "Then why won't you tell me where he went?"

"Cuz he told me not to tell you!" Akisame hiked the towel that she'd wrapped around herself higher and sniffed, curling her toes inward over the floor. "Can I get dressed now?"

Kagome was silent, troubled by her husband's absence while Akisame stormed past her and swept into her own room, slamming the sliding door with a rough clattering sound. It was several moments before Kagome moved after Akisame and shouted, "Can you at least tell me when he'll be back?"

"For dinner," Akisame replied, then she cursed and Kagome heard clothing billowing and the wire hangers shifting with a whining sound.

Akisame had hung her clothes from the beam in the ceiling which was too high for her to reach. That meant that to get them up there she had leaped onto the beam. To get them down required the same effort, an awkward thing for her to do while naked. Kagome smirked to herself, imagining the scene inside.

Heavy clothes hit the floor, whooshing as they came to a rest. Immediately after that was the heavy thump of Akisame's feet. Kagome opened her mouth to tell Akisame to land more gently, but stopped herself, knowing that would only rile her too.

She sighed sadly, lingering as she recalled her daughter in a time years previously, when Akisame had needed help dressing. Kagome had pushed her arms into the sleeves, pulled on the robes, tucking and twisting to remove wrinkles. Akisame watched her mother's fingers with astonishment. And as Kagome had tied the obi and finished the ensemble, a heavy brocade kimono to keep Akisame warmer during the winter, Akisame had gazed up at her mother and gave her a wide, happy grin. Kagome could still feel the smoothness of her child's hair under her fingertips as she had patted her head.

Then from in the room, Akisame growled and began cursing. Kagome frowned. "What's wrong?"

"You're still there?" Akisame asked, sounding surprised. "Can you help me, Mom?"

"What?" Kagome asked, nearly stunned by the usually stubborn, self-reliant Akisame's request.

"I need you to show me how to tie this shitty thing…"

Kagome slid open the door and entered the room cautiously, as if Akisame would spit and hiss at her like a cat for entering her domain when she was vulnerable and half-naked, even though Akisame had asked for her help. Kagome ducked down slightly, trying to see where she was standing in one corner, her upper body obscured by the hanging clothes. Already she could see that Akisame's feet were still bare, but Kagome saw a dark amber under robe, just a little deeper than the gold of Akisame's eyes.

She moved between a pair of loose boy's pants and a haori to stand along the wall where she could see Akisame in the corner clearly. Akisame had dressed herself in the under robe and tied it closed with a small black sash. At her bare feet next to the wall was a pile of baby blue fabric that Kagome recognized as the obi for the kimono Akisame was trying to wear.

"How do I tie that?" Akisame asked, jabbing a clawed finger at the blue obi.

"Where's the outer robe?" Kagome asked, looking at the hangers. She spotted several outer robes that would match the silken golden under robe that Akisame was wearing and motioned for them. "Pick one of those and I'll tie the obi."

"Those are too bulky," Akisame said, scowling. "I just wanted to wear this thing." She lifted up her arms to show the sleeves and kicked out one leg. The under robe was embroidered with brown and orange leaves at the bottom while green vines curled on the sleeves. It was beautiful enough to wear on its own, but really the under robe was meant to be hidden beneath the outer layer and only visible at the collar or when Akisame pulled up the sleeves or the hem. That was why the sleeves and the hem were decorated as they were while the rest of the robe was one simple color.

"I think it's going to be a hot day, Akisame," Kagome murmured. "I'm not sure you'll be comfortable even with just the under robe…" She hoped that the unspoken question in her hesitance would be answered: _Why are you trying to dress up? What's on your mind?_

Akisame frowned and pulled her wet, tangled black hair forward. She ran her claws through it, wincing whenever she came on a snarl. Something in her expression spoke of pain. Her lips crinkled while she stared at the floor.

"I'll help you with it if that's really what you want…?" Kagome said, smiling gently, offering encouragement.

"Mom," Akisame said and her voice snagged in a little hiccup. "Am I just too weird? Am I a freak or something? Am I ugly?"

"What?" Kagome asked, baffled at what she was hearing. She shook her head firmly and stepped forward, reaching out for Akisame. "No! You're a beautiful girl—you are yourself, you aren't like anyone else and that's how it should be."

Akisame's hands and fingers stilled in their combing movements through her hair. She closed her eyes. "I really miss Koinu."

At last Kagome picked out Akisame's meaning. With Koinu present Akisame was confident and brazen. She acted like the second son Kagome and Inuyasha had never had, the boy that looked like Kagome but acted identically to Inuyasha. But the moment Koinu left her, Akisame _felt_ and _cared_ for the first time that villagers stared at her. She appeared mostly human, but she was actually far from it. She leaped through trees, wore boy's clothes, cursed, ate insects, and laughed at the opposite sex. Without Koinu and Shippo as well to keep her company, Akisame felt her own uniqueness, and maybe she remembered that she was a _girl._ She was not _one of the boys._ She was other. And being _other_ brought loneliness and self-doubt.

Kagome was silent for a short time only before she smiled brightly and jabbed her finger upward to a blue-gray outer robe. "I think that one will match well enough, Akisame. And its light enough that I think you'll be okay."

"But it'll feel too thick…" Akisame said sullenly.

Kagome reached slowly and touched her daughter's chin, moving Akisame's face to look into hers. Akisame allowed the touch and met her mother's gaze, blinking furiously at unshed tears.

"Since your father is out doing something secret," Kagome started, smirking. "How about you come with me and I'll take you into town."

Akisame pulled away, scowling. "Why the hell would I want to go there? Everyone will just _look_ at me…"

"They certainly will because when I've finished putting you in that kimono and fixed your hair they won't recognize you and the whole market will see you and say, 'Who's that young lady with Kagome? She's so beautiful!' All the boys will want to talk to you and all the women will be jealous." Kagome grinned, watching her daughter with pride.

"Yeah," Akisame muttered. "And as soon as they hear me they'll start staring the way they always do—but I'm not changing anything for them, Mom. I won't."

"Don't change Akisame," Kagome said. "I would never ask you to change who you are. But I think you've already been pretending to be something you're not."

Akisame bristled, pulling back from her mother. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Kagome continued to smile. "A boy. You've been pretending you're a boy to keep up with Koinu."

Akisame opened her mouth to dispute this but her refute sputtered and died before she could give voice to it. Instead she used anger, pulling on her long black hair and making a face. "I wish I _was_ a boy! I'm stronger than all the human boys and I'm just as strong as Koinu is." She lifted her chin with sudden pride. "I made the adamant barrage with Tetsusaiga."

"Really?" Kagome exclaimed. "So he's really teaching you! Wonderful!"

"Yep." Akisame had brightened with a grin. Her eyes were like honey, rich and warm.

"Well since your father is doing so well by you, it's time I did the same," Kagome announced, her smile changing into a smirk. She pointed to the same blue-gray outer robe. "Get that for me, my strong girl, and I'll show you how to stop your foes with a power your father and Koinu will never have."

Akisame tossed her mother a doubtful look. "And what's that?"

Kagome laughed. "Wait and see…"

* * *

A/N: I need to end this story, but honestly I'm not sure how to or where exactly. There's SO much I could write here...ugh...


	39. Kasai's Truth

A/N: Ugh I am so tired…this took a long time to do, it was hard. I hope I got it right.

Disclaimer: I do not own them. Just my original characters. They're kinda mine.

Last Chapter: I'm too tired to look it up.

* * *

**Kasai's Truth**

The blue-gray kimono had pine trees in black thread at the bottom, but near the top it lightened. Hills rose on it, like the horizon in twilight. The golden collar of Akisame's under robe gave the impression of the sun rising, as did her bright, honeyed eyes. Kagome supplied her daughter with silvered sandals and together they walked down the path toward the village.

Akisame complained that the kimono was too heavy and warm at first, and that she would prefer to move through the trees as usual, but Kagome reassured her, saying, "With your father missing on some secret mission that you can't tell me about I need you to be here with me. You're my protector right now, Akisame, not just a pretty face."

"Fine," Akisame grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting, but the action was more for show than for anything else. Kagome could see that in the way her daughter's shoulders weren't sagging and the way she stayed at her side rather than slowing up or wandering off.

The sky was brimming with full, fluffy clouds. They would soon converge and begin another assault of rain on what would one day become Tokyo. When one crossed over the sun, Akisame breathed an audible sigh of relief. Kagome was dressed considerably lighter than her daughter and she had pinned her hair back messily. Akisame wore hers long and unrestrained, though Kagome had tried to put it up for her, Akisame had refused when she saw her reflection in a mirror. It was _too showy,_ too extravagant, and completely foreign.

On some level she felt more and more like an idiot as they entered the bustling village. The thought increased exponentially as she saw first one group of villagers, and then another, all staring at her perplexedly, just as Kagome had predicted that they would.

"I don't like this, Mom," Akisame growled, leaning into her mother as if she could hide.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, and even if there was you would make it sorry for coming after us, wouldn't you?"

"I'm not afraid!" Akisame spat, glaring.

"We won't be here long," Kagome assured her.

"I _am not_ afraid!"

Before she could pester Kagome any further they had reached a short, squat building that smelled bitter to Akisame, making her pause outside with a snarl of disgust. "What is this place?"

"I'll only be a moment," Kagome said and then disappeared into the shaded foyer to slip out of her sandals. Akisame craned her neck to watch, anxiously fidgeting in her kimono. She was uncomfortable under the sun, irritated that even her feet were smothered in fabric. She was wearing split-toe socks. Some of her socks would come up to her thighs under the kimono, but thankfully the socks she wore presently reached only to her ankles. Even so Akisame's feet felt clammy and clumsy, like ears with plugs set in them or cotton smashed into one's mouth.

Akisame watched the crowd passing by with wary eyes. Many of them took little note of her, but a gaggle of young women the same age as Koinu, girls that Akisame had often seen eyeing her brother from the rice paddies, gawked at her as they walked by. Akisame narrowed her eyes and glared at them. She was about to resort to growling when the girls remembered their manners and gave little bows like ducks taking drinks of water. One of them tripped on her own feet and the girls laughed.

Before she could stop herself, Akisame laughed as well. Tension slipped away. The girls smiled as they walked on.

Kagome reappeared with a small cube shape wrapped in a rough cloth. Akisame recognized it as soap. Seeing her daughter's scrutiny, Kagome explained, "I was running very low at home."

A few paces later they stopped at a stall where green vegetables were sold. Kagome babbled happily as she picked over the items, but the storekeeper, a man that Akisame knew as Miyazi, barely looked in Kagome's direction the entire time. His face stayed pinched with displeasure and boredom while he fanned himself with crude paper fan.

Seeing the fan, Kagome changed subjects enthusiastically. "Hasn't it been hot, lately?"

Miyazi shrugged and sucked snot with a thick slurp and quick swallow.

"Well," Kagome said, picking out several of the vegetables and sliding them into her cloth bag. "I think that's it for us."

Miyazi accepted the coins she offered and then moved his gaze casually to Akisame as Kagome started to leave. His eyes widened into their fullest roundness. His brow quirked upward into his forehead, wrinkling it and disturbing a few slimy beads of sweat. "Good afternoon, miss. Can I help you?"

"Yeah," Akisame said with a grimace of disgust. "Take my mom's money and make sure you get a fucking bath tonight."

Miyazi's expression went through a wildly different transformation as recognition dawned. His lips curved and wrinkled in a frown. The crow's feet at the corners of his ugly eyes stood out prominently. "Oh," he muttered. "Aki."

Like most of the town Miyazi knew of Kagome and Inuyasha's children by name and normally recognized them in the street. On this occasion however, Miyazi had mistaken Akisame for a fine lady of standing, a stranger to the town that he could swindle.

Akisame muddled after Kagome, glaring at passersby, shopkeepers, and venders as they snuck long stares at her, a silent question in their faces. _Who is she?_

An hour later Kagome had filled her cloth bag with vegetables, fruits, a few cuts of meat wrapped in paper, and some spices. She had Akisame carry the bag of rice as they left the village. Normally Akisame would have carried the sack of rice on her hip, but her kimono got in the way. When she switched the bag to her shoulders it pushed awkwardly on her collar and caught her sleeves. Frustrated, Akisame whined almost continuously as they made their way home.

Kagome unloaded their things with a soft frown on her face. Her intention had been to show Akisame how beautiful she was, how staring didn't have to be negative. Instead she had only irritated her daughter. Akisame hadn't seemed to appreciate any admiring gazes in the village and the kimono, although she looked every bit the beautiful, noble hime, didn't make Akisame feel comfortable.

When Akisame complained about being hot, Kagome pitied her enough, upon seeing the sweat beading on her daughter's brow, to untie the obi securing the outer robe and let her wear the under robe around instead. She set Akisame to work by cutting up the meat she'd bought at the market. Then she went to the padlocked cabinet where she kept snack food from the modern era stored away from greedy, youthful fingers. The cabinet had mostly lost its purpose over the years as Shippo, Akisame, and Koinu all learned to control their cravings for sweet things like chocolate or sugared candies—at least that was what Kagome assumed.

She unlocked the cabinet and pulled it open. A bag of M&M's fell out onto the floor and as Kagome knelt to get them, she froze. On the back of the M&M's package was a girl with platinum blond hair, wearing torn, grungy clothing and offering the camera a closed-mouth smile. Although the girl looked nothing like Akisame, Kagome suddenly saw the black, grungy clothes and thought of her daughter. The kimono flattered Akisame, but it didn't make her comfortable. Within the era that Akisame had been raised women's choices and identities were limited, but five hundred years in the future…

She snatched up the package and shoved it into the cabinet in a flurry as a new idea took hold of her. "Akisame," she called.

"What?" she answered from the opposite side of the kitchen. Akisame was cutting the fish meat into thin, delicate slices without using a knife. If Kagome had seen her working with her claws there would have been hell to pay, but Akisame listened to her mother's movements at all times. If she heard Kagome approach, Akisame would take up the blade and work with that instead, though the strips would no longer be as perfect.

"How would you like to package up our food and bring it to Grandma and Sota?"

Akisame's hands stilled over the fish and her face blanked as her mind raced. "Uh…"

"I'll let you have chocolate if you want it, and I'm sure Grandma has food she wants to share too. You can play Sota's old video games if they still work."

"Uh…" Akisame made a face, fighting to think.

"Then we could go shopping. I haven't been to a mall in _years…"_ Kagome relished the idea of the bustling, noisy Tokyo, of seeing and interacting with technology again. Akisame was a lot like Inuyasha, but she had weaker senses and she was slightly less aggressive. As a child Akisame had reacted to buses and skyscrapers on the rare occasion that she saw them with a wide-eyed trepidation, but she hadn't acted unusually. Perhaps the sights, sounds, and scents of the modern era would please her, and the changed attitude of the people there might let her feel at home.

"No, not tonight, Mom."

"Why not?" Kagome asked, jarred out of her hopeful thoughts.

Akisame had taken up the knife to resume cutting strips of fish meat for sushi. She cut too thin and tore the meat and cursed under her breath. In answer to her mother, she growled out, "No reason. Don't feel like it."

Kagome caught the lie and stepped forward to confront her. "Why don't you want to go through the well? Akisame, what's—"

Grumbling, Akisame set down the knife and glared at Kagome over her shoulder, giving up. "Dad's there and he told me to keep you here!"

Startled by the admission, Kagome blinked. "Oh." She opened her mouth to ask what Inuyasha was up to, but stopped, knowing it was the wrong thing to say. Finally, she said, "How about tomorrow then?"

Akisame nodded slowly, sheepish after being forced to halfway divulge her father's secret. "That's fine with me."

* * *

"My father is obsessed with you," Kasai told Koinu while they were knelt over the washbasin, scrubbing out the evening's dirty dishes.

Koinu offered her a light smile. "I hope Aunt Sango isn't jealous."

Kasai chuckled and the little wrinkle above her nose appeared, a feature she usually hid because Kohimu had teased her as a child for the habit. Catching herself, she blinked and let it bleed into a wide yawn. When she cautiously used her peripheral vision to judge whether Koinu had seen the wrinkle or not, she saw his smirk. But his amusement was restrained, as it had been throughout the whole day.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Koinu squeezed the rag he had been using out, dribbling soapy water over his hands and into the tea-colored mix below. He let out a puffed breath, a miniature sigh. "Today was…hard. I guess."

"The purification spells hurt," Kasai said, inferring for herself the source of his troubled mind. A nervous part of her turned itself in circles, considering other reasons why Koinu would be upset, less cheery than his usual self. Perhaps it was her cursed, groping hands, or the sparring match she had forced him to win. Or maybe he didn't like staying with her family. She had feared as much while they had been traveling. Koinu was a part of Inuyasha's family so much so that they were like one entity, one whole body. Kasai felt like she was the knife that heartlessly separates the head or the hands from the rest of the body.

It was painful to consider Koinu feeling alone like that, and yet his presence soothed her like warm tea on a sore throat. In fact it wasn't only Kasai that appreciated Koinu's presence. With Masuyo's loss, Sango's miscarriage, and Kasai's struggle with Master Dani, the entire family was reeling, but they stayed strong together. Koinu had proven himself as a sort of glue.

"Yeah," Koinu agreed, but it was halfhearted and as Kasai stared at him, she saw the way his eyelids lidded and his lips thinned with a frown. It could have been remembered pain from the morning and afternoon that Miroku had spent working with him, but Kasai felt sure this pain was emotional, not physical.

"You miss your family?" she asked, hesitantly.

Koinu nodded and his ears swung back sullenly. "Yeah."

"I was afraid you would," Kasai murmured, staring into the tea-colored, bubbly water in the washbasin. "I know I miss Masuyo."

With a frown, Koinu attacked the ceramic pot he'd been scrutinizing, cleaning some crusted sauce. "It wasn't your fault, Kasai."

She shook her head. "I know." The paranoid part of her brain still spun in circles, a dog chasing its tail, and Kasai blinked as her eyes began to burn and a lump tried to swell in her throat. Unbidden, memories floated to her. She saw Kenpo smiling, tight-lipped, and then dizzily she saw his body lying in a puddle of blood on green grass, motionless and dead.

She let out a small sound, a whimper, and released the dishrag. With dripping, soapy hands, she reached around her back and felt through her thin summer robes, seeking out the large ridge of scar tissue to one side of her spine. She felt it every night before getting into bed, and when she woke in the mornings it ached, refusing to be forgotten.

"What's wrong?" Koinu asked, his ears perking up and his blue eyes roving over her face and then flicking to where her wet hands were probing her back. His expression darkened. That was one scar that he knew about. "Don't," he muttered.

Kasai drew in a staccato breath. "I can't remember what happened." Her voice quieted as she asked, "How did Ken—the monk, how did the monk die in the temple?"

"The monk?" Koinu asked, scrunching up his face as he thought. He was silent for a moment and then abruptly looked away and scratched with fresh vigor on the little teacup he was holding now. His claws made a scrape in the finish of the pottery and Koinu cursed with venom that surprised Kasai. He shook his head, aware that she was waiting for an answer. "I can't remember."

The years shared between them told her immediately that he was lying. "Why won't you tell me?" she pressed, skipping over the part where she could have insulted him by calling him a liar.

His shoulders rose and fell in a sloppy but tense shrug. "I told you, I can't remember."

Now she had no choice. "You're lying."

Irritation creased his features and he glared at her suddenly. "I killed him," Koinu bit out. "With Burikko. You kept calling him _brother_."

Kasai averted her gaze, focusing on the water in the washbasin.

"Why does it matter?" Koinu asked in a hard voice. "He bit my father, so I killed him. And I'm not sorry I did." The rage he had felt as he rammed Burikko into the parasitic monk's body returned to him, making Koinu's hands clench up into fists. "I would do it again too, if I had to make the choice over. Does that make you angry?"

"It doesn't matter," Kasai told him, shakily. "I—I just wanted to know."

Koinu leaned closer to her, forgetting about the scuffed teacup he was holding. His blue eyes narrowed with a mixture of dark emotions that Kasai couldn't meet. She stared into the murky water, trying to remember to breathe as the silence between her and Inuyasha's son grew heavier and heavier, pressing on her chest.

"Who was he?" Koinu asked. His white ears were flat on his head and they stayed that way.

"Kenpo," Kasai answered stiffly. "His name was Kenpo."

Koinu withdrew from her, his lips pinched and curling down in a frown. She knew he had actually been asking: _Who was he to you?_

Kasai swallowed hard, though her mouth was dry, parched like the desert. "You didn't know him before—before the thing. And…" Her mind hardened against the memories, banishing them to escape. She could have broken a dish or gotten up and left Koinu alone, but instead she attacked him, glaring. "What does it matter to you? He's dead. Congratulations on a fine kill, Koinu."

Anger rippled over Koinu's expression, darkening his eyes into a shade of blue that was closer to black. His patience was considerable though and the pup didn't respond with the rage that furrowed his brow. "I'm sorry I asked, it wasn't right. I just—" he cut himself off and lifted his hands out of the washbasin, shaking them off. "I wasn't there; I wanted to know what happened. I wish I had been there to help you."

The hardness inside Kasai did not falter. She attacked again. "You thought I was sleeping with him. You thought my time there was like a vacation. Like a bath in a hot spring. You're jealous of the monk you killed."

Koinu's ears were flat and quivering slightly. "I'm leaving," he spat. "You can finish this up by yourself."

"Go home then," Kasai yelled as he rose to his feet and walked out of the kitchen. Her eyes filled with tears but she refused to shed them.

Koinu paused by the door, but he didn't turn back to look at her as he said, "I'm not going home whether you like that or not." Before she could spout something hurtful in response, Koinu had slid open the door to the living room and shut it, disappearing.

Shaking, Kasai lowered her forehead down to the rim of the washbasin and closed her eyes. She breathed heavily as she fought her emotions, harnessing them, burying her memories and the despair that had fueled her fury. Self-loathing wasn't far behind, and she let that come. She hadn't wanted to attack Koinu, and knew it was the wrong thing to do, but talking about Kenpo, about her time at Master Dani's temple, had spun her out of control.

_Kenpo wanted to die,_ she thought, and now she knew that Koinu had made it happen. She didn't feel resentment toward him for it, but she feigned it anyway to push Koinu away_._ But she did feel the wrongness, at the deepest level, that she had survived while Kenpo had died. She recalled his grave, the terrible pain she had felt as Koinu, Akisame, and Shippo had lowered the dead monk's body into the ground. _I'm sorry…_she thought, sending it to both Kenpo's spirit and Koinu's battered emotions. _You deserve so much more._

_

* * *

_When Koinu entered the living room, he found Kohimu, Nobe, Koudo, and Riki all staring at him. They were sitting in a circle with loose-leaf papers in front of them on little slabs of wood. Every other person had inkwells perched on the top of their wooden pallets. Large blots of black ink had dried on the sides, dropped from saturated brushes, marked years of use.

It looked like a writing lesson as children spent years learning how to perfect calligraphy, but Koinu knew that the demon slayer family spent even longer because intermixed with lessons on kanji characters were classes on youkai identification. To force the reams and reams of knowledge that Miroku and Sango knew by heart into their children's minds, the lessons involved them writing out the information the same way they would with kanji. From his distance, Koinu could read part of Riki's paper. It said: _Wolf youkai roam in large extended packs. Dog demons move singly or in family units. Cats are always alone unless united by a larger leader into an army. Male bears are always alone, females travel with cubs. Foxes…_

"What is Kasai yelling about?" Koudo piped.

"Is she mad because you beat her?" Riki asked, grinning.

"Finish writing," Kohimu ordered. "It's important that you memorize these facts." As Koudo and Riki groaned and Nobe soundlessly joined them, wetting a brush and pressing it to the page, Kohimu glanced up at Koinu. "I think Dad wants to see you. He's gone to the temple down the street."

Uncomfortable, blushing, and still angry, troubled by Kasai's anger, Koinu stuttered as he asked, "D-did, does Mir—your father, does he want me to meet him there?"

Kohimu dipped his head in a nod. His gaze on Koinu was not reproachful or upset, a small mercy that Koinu felt abundantly grateful for. "On your way could you please find Tisoki. He left for something an hour ago and hasn't come back."

"Oh," Koinu murmured and laughed nervously. "I can do that, but where is he?"

"Supposedly he was going to the temple to be with Dad, but I think he's actually…" Kohimu's lips thinned with irritation while his eyes narrowed with mirth. "…somewhere else. You have the senses to find him."

Koinu nodded. "Okay, I'll go right now."

Kohimu watched Koinu leave covertly while he examined Nobe's calligraphy. As soon as Koinu had left, Kohimu sat back and cleared his throat noisily. "I think I'm going to leave to see Mom," he announced.

"Is the lesson over?" Koudo asked with glee at the possibility.

"No." Kohimu had a book in front of him, old and worn. It was open to reveal one page full of writing; the other was filled with sketches of carnivorous youkai. Dogs, cats, bears, foxes, and wolves. While Koudo and Riki moaned with the knowledge that Kohimu wasn't finished with them yet, their older brother flipped the page and read from the next one. "Weasels live alone. Raccoon-dogs are generally peaceful and also live singly. These groups of youkai breed year round. Smell is the defining sense. A _vital_ note: In inuyoukai the presence of markings on the forehead indicates poison. Markings on other spots in the face, primarily the cheeks, indicate high birth and power within inuyoukai, but in wolf demons it is the color of the eyes with blue being the strongest."

"That's really long!" Koudo whined.

"It's very important," Kohimu repeated. "One day you'll thank me for teaching it to you." He left the group busily wetting their brushes, slashing delicately with the ink at the white paper. Sango was napping upstairs and Kohimu planned to tell her to speak to Kasai.

* * *

Inuyasha arrived home without explanation just as the sun was setting in the west. Kagome had finished the sushi rolls and had just begun flavoring the rice as it boiled when he strolled through the door, sniffing loudly. "Inuyasha!"

"Is that fish?" he asked gruffly.

"It's sushi rolls."

His attention moved to the rice then and he made a shrugging motion with his shoulders as he sniffed in the direction of the pot she had boiling. "That smells spicy."

"I think you can handle it," Kagome said, frowning. "Where were you all day today?"

"Nowhere." He advanced on the pot and leaned over it, still sniffing. His white hair clipped over his shoulders and into the rising steam from the rice.

Kagome let out a noise of alarm. "Don't lean over it like that! You'll get your hair in it!"

Inuyasha blinked at her and didn't pull back. He wasn't impressed with her concern and didn't understand her alarm. "So…?"

"People don't like eating hair," Kagome muttered, more than a little exasperated. "Please…"

He moved away and grunted, "Feh. Some thanks I get."

"Why should I thank you?" Kagome asked, baffled. "You haven't told me why you were gone all day! You left Akisame here to mope alone."

"I taught her the adamant barrage," Inuyasha said, bristling at the insinuation that he wasn't doing a proper job in educating their daughter.

"She's lonely without Koinu and Shippo here," Kagome said.

Inuyasha's ears stood upright suddenly, as if this was _great_ news. Kagome watched his face as he moved closer to her, perplexed by his bizarre behavior. She had promised not to let Inuyasha know that Akisame had accidentally told her where he'd spent the day, but she didn't know what he'd been doing there, and she was more than a little curious.

Usually when he vanished without warning, especially early in their relationship and marriage, it was to get her presents of one kind or another. Flowers, clothing, or food. Most often is was food, raw meat of some animal he went to the extra mile to kill. A deer, a pheasant, or even a bear. Kagome liked pheasants, and deer venison was delicious too, but bears…? Mostly food gifts were Inuyasha's presents to himself since his craving for raw or rare meat was light-years above the human standard. Coupled with the violence of killing it and Inuyasha had a wonderful day.

"Where is Aki, anyway?" he asked.

"She helped me with the sushi and then took off. I don't know whether she's in her bedroom or not." Like Inuyasha, just because Akisame walked down the hallway toward the bedrooms, it didn't mean she _stayed_ there. If she wanted to go outside, Akisame was liable to roll open the screens over the windows in Inuyasha and Kagome's bedroom and crawl out of it rather than using the front door. When Akisame had been younger, Kagome had taken to bolting the windows shut to keep Akisame inside as a toddler and very young child.

"We're alone then," Inuyasha inferred, smirking.

Kagome could have been blind and still she would have noticed the insinuation in his expression and his voice. She tried to hide her amusement, backing away as he drew closer to her, a little like a predator coming to feast at his kill. "You can't _assume_ that…" she cautioned.

Inuyasha ignored her and lunged forward suddenly, placing one clawed hand to either side of Kagome on the countertop. He stared into her face intently for several long moments, his amusement growing as Kagome's lips parted slightly and her pupils dilated with desire. He ducked his head down to her neck and inhaled. "You smell like those damned sushi rolls."

Kagome stammered, "I th-thought you liked them!" She gasped when she felt his mouth and then his teeth on her ear. "Inuyasha!"

"I have something for you," he said, and in spite of herself, Kagome couldn't keep the blush away as those five words immediately made her think: _Is it in his pants?_

He leaned back from her and smirked when he saw her blush, as if he could read her mind. Kagome restrained laughter as he tugged on his haori, opening it up. "Akisame could still be here," she mumbled quietly.

The hanyou reached inside the inner cream-white of his undershirt and pulled out a small, velvety box. Kagome's mouth dropped open, gaping. "Inuyasha…?"

"I know in your era diamonds are supposed to be beautiful," he told her, smiling wide with more than a little pride at his own cleverness. "So I used diamonds that Aki made to have some bozos in your time make this for you."

Kagome accepted the velvet box and opened it, making the hinges crack. A string of large, shiny diamonds showed through on a necklace with a golden chain. They were not pure white, but instead a uniform, transparent amber. Before she could stop herself, Kagome made a face. "These are…"

"You don't like them?" Inuyasha asked, almost with a yelp.

"That's not it!" Kagome interjected hurriedly, reaching out to cup his cheek with one hand. "Most diamonds don't look like this…they're usually as clear as possible. These are a lovely amber. I was just curious—"

"Amber?" Inuyasha repeated and snatched the velvet box from her to look for himself. "Oh!" he growled and snapped the box shut. "That one's not for you."

"What?"

"I had two of them made," Inuyasha said. "The amber ones were for Aki because they match her eyes." As he spoke he fished inside the undershirt once more, producing a different velvety box that he handed to her. "That one is for you."

This time she opened it and found the clear, glittering gems arranged on this necklace not in a string, but in a circle. She smiled and touched the gems, feeling them with a sort of awe, remembering when Inuyasha had first learned to use the adamant barrage, so many memories…

"Thank you," she breathed. "These are beautiful, more beautiful than anything you could have bought."

"Feh," he grunted. "They still cost a _lot_, at least that's what your mom and Souta said. I had to trade a shit load of other diamonds to get the bastards to make these necklaces."

Kagome wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer, laying her head on his chest. "Thank you, Inuyasha."

The hanyou laid his cheek over her head and brought a hand up under her hair, running his fingers through it. "No problem." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his chest expanding and deflating. "You smell like the rice too."

Kagome chuckled against him. "Thank you, Inuyasha."

* * *

Exhaustion numbed Koinu's senses by the time he'd returned to the slayer's home. Miroku had indeed been at the temple, placing offerings of thanks, burning incense. He hadn't asked Koinu to do anything for a long time, and hardly seemed to notice the pup's presence. But after a half hour or so, Miroku had looked up and asked, "Are you uncomfortable?"

Koinu shook his head, struggling to mask his surprise. "No."

Miroku nodded and had Koinu come to kneel before one of the many Kannons. As if Koinu were to become a student of Miroku's spiritual teachings, the monk had Koinu adopt meditative positions and repeat chants and rituals for the next hour. Occasionally Koinu caught the monk watching him with oddly narrow eyes, examining him the way a farmer might look at his punier vegetables before bringing only the best to market.

And then the strange question came again, "Are you uncomfortable?"

"No." Koinu didn't tell him the complete truth. In fact his skin was itchy and his ears were twitching. Miroku watched the motion and Koinu blushed when he felt sure that the monk had seen right through his deception.

Eventually Miroku sent Koinu on his way, reminding him to track down Tisoki. Koinu spent another two hours following the meandering scent of the young man through the slayer's town, from little establishments that functioned basically as bars or entertainment centers. At length Koinu found that Tisoki's trail led back home. The search had been in vain.

As he ascended the short steps, just three of them that creaked with each footfall, Koinu failed to pick out Kasai's scent. His gaze was downcast, pointed to the ground, to his own bare feet. When her voice came out of the darkness he yelped and tensed before he recognized it. "Kasai?"

"Yes," she said, quietly.

He sniffed the air and found her scent, but saw no sign of her. It was dark and very late. Clouds had moved in, covering the moon and the stars. Even so, Koinu knew with a quick look around that she wasn't on the veranda; instead she was inside, speaking to him through the door, which was open slightly. Someone had left it open for Koinu, knowing he was still outside.

Koinu strode forward and cautiously slide the door open. Kasai was standing on the other side, peering up at him.

Although it had been hours since he had left her in anger, Koinu felt the emotions wriggle about inside, stirred anew. She had hurt him with the venom of her words, but he had been the one to press her, prodded by his own instincts and desires, into the dangerous memories of her time possessed by the parasitic demon. Koinu had seen her emotion for the dead monk and felt a new, deadly emotion awaken within.

With the acuity of his inuyoukai ancestor's senses, Koinu had found himself _suspecting_ the dead monk. Conflicting needs warred inside of him. A jealous part of him suspected the monk had been a lover. A different side of him knew otherwise, but sensed that because of the shared horror of the experience, Kasai and Kenpo shared something that _he_ could not. He had grown up beside her, but the temple, the possession, and Kenpo, had all changed Kasai, and Koinu had not been a part of it. He envied the dead youth for that, as complicated and troubling as such a thought was.

There was also the fact that Koinu had been the one to kill Kenpo. Had he killed a rival without knowing it? Koinu found himself _pleased_ that he had killed Kenpo, that the monk was dead. But guilt and shame sprang up when he caught himself thinking that way. Hadn't he been raised to be responsible, to value life, to defend it?

They were complex emotions and Kasai was too smart not to have realized part of his feelings. "_You thought I was sleeping with him," _she'd said._ "You thought my time there was like a vacation. Like a bath in a hot spring. You're jealous of the monk you killed."_ The possessiveness was new to him, a feature in himself that he hated though it had only just appeared. He had seen it in his father before and agreed with his mother that it was foolish. Now he was doing the same thing over a dead monk, envying a dead man for the brief connection he'd had with Kasai.

He turned his face away from Kasai's searching gaze, ashamed. "I'm really tired," he told her.

"I know—I just had to apologize. What I said," she halted, stammering. "It was inexcusable."

Koinu's jaw clenched and he let out a hard breath. "I wasn't any better." The admission came out as a growl. Of course Kasai would see through him. She had the training of a demon slayer and Koinu couldn't hide his heritage. So of course she would strike out at him, pushing him away, shaming him for his jealous reaction, his inappropriate possessiveness. He had not screamed or shouted as Inuyasha would have, but Koinu had hurt her by accusing her, even silently, of misconduct. It was _especially_ inappropriate because Kasai had never told him that she cared for him. There were no promises between them. They were nothing but childhood friends, fighting to adjust to young adulthood, to changing hormones and hearts. When Kasai was friendly with him it meant nothing, it didn't touch her heart.

Kasai shook her head, smiling faintly. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"What I said was wrong," Koinu muttered and his ears flattened to the top of his head as his face creased with anger. "But what I did when I killed the monk—I had no other choice." He paused before finishing darkly, "I didn't know what he meant to you."

Kasai was nodding solemnly. "I know you did what you did because you had to. I can't remember it, but—but I—I saw what I did t-to…"

Her breathing had become harsh with emotion though she didn't cry and Koinu stepped forward without thinking, wrapping his arms around her, using motion to cease her words, to stop the pain he could see they caused. "Don't go back there," he murmured. "You don't have to. I'm sorry I pushed you."

"Poor Kenpo," she cried. "He wanted to take his own life rather than...We would have gone together—but I was a coward."

Koinu tried to keep breathing normally, to keep his arms from tightening or flinching. His stomach had hardened and turned to lead. "You don't have to go back there," Koinu repeated a little louder, remembering her lifeless violet eyes as they stared unblinking up into the falling raindrops.

"He deserved so much more," Kasai said, shaking increasingly. "And you—you deserve more too."

"What do you mean?" Koinu asked gently, barely audible.

"More than me. Better than me." She stopped and choked, trying to swallow. "But I would miss you so much if you left…"

"I'm not leaving," Koinu reassured her.

He was about to say more, to comfort her as best he could, but Kasai surprised him by blurting out, "I've loved you f-for years, but I'm so stupid, I-I never saw it."

Koinu stuttered too, unable to keep quiet, certain that he had misheard her. "W-what?"

Kasai had stilled in his arms, though she was breathing rapidly and sniffling. Her voice was small and almost meek. "You're so beautiful and perfect in a way I never can be." She raised her head slowly, looking up into his face. Her tears glimmered in her eyes and on her cheeks. "I-I've loved you since I was a little girl, I've just been too stupid to know." Her eyelids closed, like heavy shutters. "That's why I k-kissed you…"

Stunned, Koinu stayed silent.

"I—I'm sorry I did," she stammered. "I—it was selfish."

"Stop crying," Koinu pleaded. "You don't need to explain anything." The internal war raged in his mind. He wanted her to repeat herself, to tell him her feelings again. It was unfathomable to look back on his memories with her and wonder at it. The way Kasai had always competed with him, taunted him, and then started groping him and stole a kiss—it had all been her struggle to either express or hide emotions she didn't understand.

"I'm sorry," Kasai cried, and her shoulders heaved as she took several fast, deep breaths, stifling the approach of full sobs. "You deserve…"

Gently, Koinu began touching her face, brushing away her tears until his fingers were soaked with them. When she opened her eyes at last and gazed up at him, Koinu leaned ahead and closed the gap between them. He touched his forehead and smiled when he felt the warm and feathery caress of her breath, tinged with her scent. This close it was strong and sharp, reminding him of wildflowers that had bloomed every summer in the hills around his home. As a small child he had plucked them and delivered them to his mother so she could leave them in vases around the house. It should have made him feel intensely homesick, but instead it suffused him with comfort and warmth.

Whisperingly, Kasai said, "You were jealous of Kenpo, but do you know why I liked him?"

Koinu felt her breath puffing as she spoke, but the thought of the monk, of the way she had seen through him, made him tense. He fought to hold onto the harmony and calm that had enclosed him moments before. "I—"

"I liked him because he reminded me of you," Kasai explained shakily. "Even when I couldn't remember you, I loved you."

Heat spread across his face and down to his neck. Koinu's ears swiveled forward and back, unsure of what position to take as he grappled with Kasai's admission. He had pulled back to examine her. Her black hair was long, a dark halo around her pale skin. Her eyes looked black with the pupils swollen to take in as much light as possible. She was raw, exposed before him.

Slowly, Koinu dipped down and tentatively touched his lips to the side of her mouth, just as she had once done so unexpectedly two years ago. Kasai made a small noise, almost a sound of fear like a whimper. The touch of her warm skin, the scent of her breath, sent a tiny tremor through him and with sudden confidence Koinu kissed her lips, meeting them hard with his own.

Koinu longed still to know what she had endured, to help share the brunt of the heavy weight he saw over her shoulders, but it was too soon. For now she would bury it, letting time heal her. And Koinu would be there for her, helping as much as he could.

* * *

A/N: This is like the last chapter I think...besides an epilogue which will tie up remaining loose ends...I think that's the plan anyway...


	40. Hostage at Nejiro

A/N: Now I know I like promised an epilogue, but I think I lied. I wanted this to be that short thing, offering a teaser for a Masuyo/Saya continuation…but as usual I have so much brewing in Saya/Sess/Rin scenes…and I love Masu. Can you tell? And of course the end of this chapter pleases me too…hehe. VERY SORRY this took so long in coming. I was battling myself. Should I put this out there? Should I reveal this much in Masu/Saya's journey? But as my life is getting thicker with school (I graduate in May and next fall I will enter Grad school, possibly with a stipend as a teacher or researcher) and my soon-to-be future fiancé (he's told me the ring will come in May with graduation) I figured best to just put it out there. This would have been up over the weekend, but FFnet was being stupid.

So…here goes!!

Disclaimer: I do not own stuff. I rent. Like a serf!

Last Chapter: Aki revealed to Kagome that IY was out doing something in the modern era, making a necklace of diamonds for her. Kasai and Koinu had a fight about Kenpo the dead monk that came about because Koinu showed a little possessive side, kind of envying the dead guy and Kasai called him on it. She also learned that it was Koinu that killed Kenpo. Koinu refused to be sorry for it. When Koinu next saw Kasai they made up. Kasai admitted to loving Koinu, from a young age, but never knowing how to interpret it or act on it.

* * *

**Hostage At Nejiro**

Masuyo had never seen a castle as magnificent as Sesshomaru's Nejiro. High in the mountains, tucked away, it could not be compared to any other architecture that Masuyo had seen in his short lifetime. The journey had taken several days and the travel in the outdoors with the fresh air, blue sky, and change of scenery had jumpstarted Masuyo's mind and heart. Thoughts about his family faded enough that he could enjoy the travel and see the world around him without a veil of grief.

Saya's cheerfulness was unrelenting. Masuyo recognized in her some of the same excitement that travel brought out in him. Sesshomaru stayed mostly aloof throughout the journey and set a steady but patient speed. Masuyo had expected to struggle to keep up with the powerful lord of the West, but instead Sesshomaru seemed in no hurry to reach their destination.

There was only one problem throughout their journey: food. Sesshomaru did not use roads, and he didn't stop in villages. Saya appeared to have no trouble with this. She often charged away through underbrush, calling with glee. Masuyo, like a nursemaid, always hesitated, shouting after her and calling to Sesshomaru. The first time it happened Masuyo panicked. It was on the afternoon after they set out. They had barely left Kagetsu palace behind when Saya darted out of the line she and Masuyo made as they shadowed Sesshomaru, following him.

"Saya!" he yelled. "Saya! Stop! What are you doing?"

Her voice floated to him from what sounded like a mile of distance already. "Come on, Masu!"

Masuyo stood frozen in the ferns and lush grasses, squinting in the bright sunlight. He could see Sesshomaru moving under the dappled lights and darks of the forest canopy. The ground fell away in a hill ahead. Sesshomaru would disappear from sight in a few minutes and he showed n sign of having noticed that his daughter had disappeared. Irritation and fear tore through Masuyo. _What kind of father is he?_ But fast on the heels of that thought was a possibility that made his stomach lurch. _Maybe it's a test._ Sesshomaru knew Saya had run off, but he would show no sign of it to see what Masuyo would do.

The longer he did nothing and the further Sesshomaru walked without halting or even looking back, the more Masuyo was certain that it _was_ a test.

"Saya!" he shouted as loud as he could and half aimed his voice in Sesshomaru's direction. "Saya! Come back here right now!"

Sesshomaru stopped in the distance and moved his head, cocking it to one side, the motion of a listening dog. Masuyo called to him, "Lord Sesshomaru! Saya has run off! I can't see her anymore."

The inuyoukai lost interest seemingly, his head straightened. He was motionless, standing tall and in the shadow of the canopy he glowed white with his clothing, the fur boa over his shoulder, and his long, flowing hair like a silky mane. Masuyo stared, appalled. "Something could happen to her!"

These words appeared to have the desired effect. Sesshomaru calmly faced Masuyo and backtracked at a leisurely pace. His features were stony, unconcerned. When he was within fifty feet of the boy, Sesshomaru said, "Follow her."

Masuyo blinked, baffled. "What—"

"You are hungry," Sesshomaru told him. "Saya is finding something to eat."

"But what if something happens to her?" Masuyo demanded.

"Unlikely," the inuyoukai replied with noticeable boredom.

"She's just a girl!"

"There are no threats in these woods." Sesshomaru leveled an abruptly harsh stare on Masuyo. A muscle flickered in his jaw, a sign of irritation though Masuyo wasn't experienced enough to recognize it as that. "Saya is not defenseless."

This silenced Masuyo, but it didn't quench his need for knowledge, for understanding. In family lessons he had been taught that inuyoukai were notoriously paranoid and protective of mates, offspring, and sometimes other relatives. Sesshomaru's nonchalance didn't mesh with what Masuyo had heard in family stories either.

He found himself recalling Shiroihana's cryptic words, her warning about Saya and her 'immediate family.' "_There is a fear within our family that Saya will leave us and put herself in danger."_ Was this what she'd meant? The certainty that he knew _nothing_ about anything touched Masuyo, crushing the excitement that he had first felt upon leaving Kagetsu and Shiroihana.

He waited tensely with Sesshomaru for several minutes and then Saya reappeared, trundling through the ferns. Her long, elegant sleeves were soiled with dirt and spurts of red. She had hiked her kimono up awkwardly between her legs. Her white socks and the wooden sandals were smeared with dark dirt.

Seeing the red on her sleeves, Masuyo bit back a cry of alarm. He turned and glared at Sesshomaru though the inuyoukai lord didn't notice and was not alarmed by Saya's appearance in the least. As Saya drew closer, Masuyo realized _why._ The red was stuck in the corner of Saya's mouth as well. The red was from berries.

When she reached them, Saya grinned at her father and Masuyo saw a speck of something green between her teeth. "There were fiddleheads and berries, Father!"

Sesshomaru gave a small nod of his head. Masuyo watched their interaction stiffly, uncomfortable as an outsider and feeling foolish for his anger.

"Do you want some?" Saya asked him, drawing Masuyo out of his thoughts. Masuyo stared at her and saw that she had tucked her hands inside her sleeves and pulled out handfuls of ripe, red berries and the tightly coiled, bright green fiddleheads of unwound ferns.

Masuyo took the food awkwardly and ate them, thanking her. The journey resumed but several times a day it was interrupted when Saya streaked off into the woods when she smelled berries, or suddenly leapt at the dirt, pawing and digging until she had pulled up an edible root or a yam. She shared her findings with Masuyo, keeping him from starving outright on the way to Nejiro. The strangeness of her behavior made sense to Masuyo by the second day when he realized that Sesshomaru was not going to feed them. Unlike both of them, his need for food varied, and currently seemed nonexistent. If he had crossed through a village Masuyo was sure it would end in a massacre. So Saya's on-the-go foraging became routine and Masuyo eventually helped her out of his own growing hunger.

In spite of uncertainty and hunger, Masuyo enjoyed the scenery. The world was in full summer. Birds sang in the early morning and the evening, monkeys chattered on occasion in the afternoon. Deer barked and rushed through the forest, streaking with such speed and accidental elegance that Masuyo envied them.

The pace slowed slightly when they began climbing into the mountains. Masuyo wondered at the silence of the natural world, away from human settlements. On the last day they followed a small, rocky path through a winding valley, steadily upward. Sesshomaru led them from only a short distance and he was more vigilant, turning to watch as Saya and Masuyo climbed on the path after him. When Saya stumbled, bumping into Masuyo and nearly knocking him into a fall that would have sent him tumbling to a death from shattered limbs and a broken neck, Masuyo barely had time to cry out with fear before hard, strong hands steadied him from behind. He twisted to look up and saw that Sesshomaru had caught him, though an eye-blink before the inuyoukai had been twenty feet in front of them, leading the way.

The path flattened for a time in the afternoon and Masuyo saw the first tall spire of Nejiro. He gaped, hardly hearing Saya as she chattered about Nejiro, explaining how much more she liked the human maids and the way the stairs creaked under her feet, even the paintings on the walls pleased her more than Kagetsu. "That's where Father and Momma were bound," she said.

"Bound?" Masuyo asked, confused by the strange terminology.

"Before they were married. Even before I was born," she explained.

She expected him to nod so Masuyo did, pretending that he understood everything she had revealed. He watched the spire with increasing interest, the tapered roofs with the wooden shingles colored brown-gold coming clearer as each step took them closer. Had Sesshomaru had the castle made for himself? Or was it a remnant of Shiroihana or Inutaisho's dynasties? Was it possible that it could be even older than that?

Saya went on, in spite of Masuyo's distraction. "The brat was born here."

It wasn't what Saya said that caught Masuyo's attention; it was how she'd said it. Surprised, Masuyo gazed at Saya's face where she walked beside him on the rocky path. "The brat?"

Saya's expression soured to match her voice. She curled one lip up in a snarl, showing her white teeth underneath. "Yes, _Chakushi-sama._" She stared at her father ahead and lowered her voice to say, "I like to call him _Gaki-sama._"

The ferocity on her face made Masuyo turn away, troubled. He focused on Sesshomaru's long, lithe form, the rippling flow of his white hair. Shiroihana's warning suddenly made sense in a disturbing way. He had seen and felt sibling rivalry throughout his life. It was second nature to him, as familiar as the creases in his palms. Yet this was a different kind of rivalry. He knew it already not because he was the fourth child in six to be born to Miroku and Sango, but rather the knowledge stemmed from being trained as a demon slayer. Saya's brother was a pureblooded, full inuyoukai. Saya, meanwhile, was only hanyou. It would make a difference within the strange family that Masuyo could not predict, and wasn't certain he could handle.

Cautiously, Masuyo asked, "When you go to look for food—why isn't your father worried about you?"

Saya blinked at his question and frowned. Her brow furrowed, nearly wrinkling the purplish crescent moon on her forehead. "He always knows if there's something nearby that's dangerous." She tapped her nose. "He can smell it coming."

"He told me you aren't helpless," Masuyo said, paraphrasing. "Can you fight?"

Saya shrugged uncaringly. "Momma taught me a little, but other youkai think twice about picking on me because of my poison."

Masuyo hid his surprise, nodding mutely. He had known that Sesshomaru was poisonous, but Saya was hanyou and all other hanyou that Masuyo had heard of lacked poison. Covertly, he tried to study her claws but they were hidden under the fabric of her torn, stained sleeves. How much was there left for him to learn from his strange hosts?

* * *

Nejiro loomed up, huge and beautiful, but also foreboding. They passed through a gated entryway into a massive courtyard. Lush grass lined the sides of the cobbled walkway initially, but as Sesshomaru led them deeper, Masuyo saw blossoming trees. Their branches were weighted heavily and petals fell languidly down to the grass. Pink, red, and white, the petals fluttered in the slightest breeze, dancing in circles around the bases of the decorative trees.

Servants moved through the trees, collecting freshly shed petals, trimming longer or uneven grasses and pruning bushes. When they saw Sesshomaru they turned and fell to their knees, touching their foreheads to the thick blanket of greenery.

A horse whinnied somewhere in the distance and Sesshomaru stopped, searching for the animal. There was no sign of it but he didn't go on until Masuyo and Saya waited behind him, but Saya was impatient, having already seen the courtyard before.

"Can I go play in the petals?" she asked brightly.

"No," Sesshomaru responded tersely. "You and the boy will go with Kurige to bathe."

"Kurige?" Saya groaned. "He stinks like horse manure!"

Sesshomaru's lips twitched slightly, a small smile. He gazed at his oldest daughter with affection that even Masuyo, inexperienced at reading inuyoukai moods, could see. "Kurige Hama," he said.

"Oh," Saya muttered.

The servants were still bowing on the grass. On some of them white and pink petals had fallen like snow, trying to bury them. Even as Masuyo wondered what they were waiting for, a shuffling sound came of feet over gravel. Masuyo leaned to one side to peer past Sesshomaru's fluff and saw a woman running toward them. She was dressed as a maid with her hair tightly pinned back. A few feet from them she dropped to the stones of the walkway and greeted Sesshomaru and Saya. She didn't know Masuyo and wouldn't ask until she was alone with Saya and Masuyo, out of Sesshomaru's presence.

"Take Saya and the boy to the baths," Sesshomaru ordered her.

"Yes, my lord."

With that finished Sesshomaru left them, walking over the green, thick carpet of grass, between the blooming trees. The servants rose to their feet and scurried back to work like mice frightened at the sight of the cat.

Saya grabbed Masuyo's hand and tugged on it, startling him. "Come on, we have to go with Hama before we can see Momma."

The courtyard stretched on and on as they followed Hama the maid. At last they climbed a tall stairway and shed their shoes inside a foyer specially designed for that purpose. Hama washed their feet and smiled up at both of them with a mixture of warmth and curiosity. Masuyo felt his body stiffening as the dark, strong wood of the walls and floor set him on edge.

"You're filthy, young lady," Hama said.

Saya replied shamelessly, "I was hungry."

"Lord Sesshomaru should have fed you!"

"Father is distracted," Saya answered, but Masuyo wished he could see her expression from where he waited behind her for Hama to finish. He doubted she looked happy.

"Lord Sesshomaru has had his hands full," Hama said. "The little lord has kept all of us busy!"

Saya pulled her foot away from Hama before the maid had finished completely. "It's done. You should clean Masuyo's feet. He didn't even have socks on!"

"Masuyo?" Hama asked, gazing at him with narrowed eyes, taking him in. She smiled but it was tinged with a twitch of nervousness. "You're a handsome young lad! What is that you're wearing…?" She gestured to the black, hard material of his bodysuit where it was mostly hidden beneath his dull blue clothes.

Before he could think about it, Masuyo heard himself say, "It's nothing."

Hama murmured demurely in response, accepting his secretive answer. She had the patience to make a good living in the castle of the Lord of the West. She accepted the mysteries around her, burying curiosity. She washed his feet without further question. By the time she had released him, scrubbing out the spaces between his toes with her rag, Masuyo realized that another servant had come and gone, collecting his straw sandals and Saya's wooden ones.

They moved through the castle halls at a swift pace. Masuyo smelled food from a kitchen and heard servants chattering. An older woman passed them with bundles of rich, thick robes under her arms. She bowed to Saya when she saw her and eyed Masuyo with open curiosity.

The bathhouse was set in an inner courtyard, surrounded by a small garden. Banzai trees in twisted shapes grew at the corners of the little wooden house. Stones made up the pathway. Masuyo heard water trickling as they stepped into the open space. Fresh air puffed in his face. He admired the stones, the decorative trees with their miniaturized agedness, but his unease only increased as Hama brought them inside and began tugging on Saya's obi. The little wooden bathhouse was quite small. The bath itself was large enough to hold half of Masuyo's family at once, but it was decorated with jade and golden tiles in such a luxurious way that he knew immediately that Sesshomaru himself bathed here. It was the family's own bathhouse—and Hama was going to strip and bathe Saya _with_ him present.

A burning sensation spread over his body, covering his face first and then digging into his chest. As Hama unwound Saya's obi and began folding it up, all the while shaking her head and scolding the girl for ruining the fine fabric by staining it, Masuyo found that he was rooted to the floor with horror, unable to move. He had bathed with his younger or older brothers, or even Miroku on many occasions. A family of their size always shared such things, but Masuyo had not bathed with his mother or Kasai since turning seven.

Saya shrugged off her outer robe while Hama folded her obi. She tossed it uncaringly aside and then pulled on the inner cord that kept her under robe secure. As her deft fingers worked, she glanced at Masuyo with an innocent smile—but the expression fell the moment she saw his face. "What's wrong?"

"Don't you think your father would object to…" He stopped and motioned to her discarded robe helplessly, unable to put the rest of the sentence into words.

"To what?" Saya asked, cocking her head to one side. Her white hair spilled over her shoulder. It was tangled slightly and a few specks of dirt or twigs were caught in the strands.

Hama, now folding the outer robe, took note of their interaction with pursed lips as she examined Masuyo anew with her critical eye. Cautiously she said, "I was given instructions to prepare a bath for you both." Her attention on Masuyo made him fidget. "Forgive me—but you are not yet a man…"

The official age for manhood was sixteen, but Masuyo stiffened anyway as if he had been insulted. To bathe with an unrelated girl meant Hama—and through her Sesshomaru himself—thought of him as a nonthreatening child. The only other possibility, that they didn't _care,_ seemed implausible. And yet Hama's demeanor told Masuyo that she did see something unseemly about it. He was being treated as if…

Masuyo stared at Saya with sudden alarm, barely noticing that she had shed her inner robe now too and had turned to walk, completely naked, to the steaming water of the bejeweled bath with its bright, gorgeous tiling. _It's like she's my sister,_ Masuyo thought. The way they treated him suggested that he would be adopted into the household.

A mixture of anger and consternation twisted through his shock. _Why…?_ And then: _No, no that can't happen…_

Hama advanced on him and started to undress him. Stunned, flabbergasted, Masuyo let her. He moved through the motions of undressing and then allowing himself to be scrubbed by the maid without thinking about it. His mind was scrambled, unable to process properly through emotion. The heat of the water didn't touch him; the fresh, flowery scent of the soaps never reached his brain. Hama dressed him and bathed him first, letting Saya splash and giggle with glee while she soaked alone, waiting her turn.

The new clothes further pushed Masuyo into the cold of shock. They were cream-yellow with blue swirls to mimic water on the sleeves. The pants were formal hakama of the same color but lacking the blue swirl pattern.

Saya was dressed in bright colors of red and gold that contrasted with her white hair. Hama left Saya's hair long and free, a child's simplicity. "How is Momma?" Saya asked.

"The lady has been fatigued, but she will be very glad to see you."

Masuyo heard their conversation, but through a distance. He didn't see Saya's close-lipped smile, the small wiggle of her shoulders. Instead he was ballooning up inside, fighting the childish desire to sob with accumulated confusion and loss. Saya was not his sister, Nejiro was not his home. As fine as the bathhouse was, Masuyo would have traded it for a muddy pond if he could have shared it with his brothers and his father. As soft and smooth as his clothing was, not to mention beautiful, Masuyo stared down at his discarded black bodysuit, the supple leather that Sango had sewn and dyed.

They traveled through the halls of Nejiro again and up through several floors over stairwells of polished oak. Finally Hama slid open a door to a large room with decorated screens over the walls and yellow-gold tatami mats on the floor for sitting on. She dropped to a bow while Saya stepped inside. Lost inside himself, Masuyo followed her, going blindly ahead, as unthinking as an insect.

Sesshomaru was already present, and sitting to one side of him was Rin. As Saya got onto her knees and bowed in ritual, Masuyo lagged behind her. Sesshomaru spoke abruptly before Saya had even finished her bow. "Kneel."

He was addressing Masuyo, but Saya sat up at once and asked, "Father?"

"Masuyo?" Rin called. Masuyo blinked and looked at her, seeing her clearly for the first time since coming into the room. She was inuyoukai, not the human that his parents as well as Inuyasha and Kagome had described from two decades ago. Her eyes were a dark blue, enough that he could have mistaken them for brown. Her hair was long and silky like Sesshomaru's, but unlike his it was a deep black. Jagged marks curled over her cheeks, colored turquoise, one per side. Beyond her raw features Masuyo thought he saw paleness and her voice had been lower than he thought he remembered—though he barely recalled seeing her as a young child.

When he said nothing immediately, Rin indicated with her hand that he should sit beside Saya. "Come closer so we can see you."

He obeyed but didn't bow. Partly it was a conscious decision, but more so it was the coldness of his shock, the unseen wall that stood up before him, separating him from the world outside.

"Welcome home, Saya," Rin said, turning her gaze onto her daughter.

"I'm so happy to be back, Momma," Saya exclaimed in a voice that startled Masuyo into wincing. "I was very worried about you and I don't like Lady Shiroihana."

Sesshomaru made a tiny noise, a low sound like a grunt. Saya shrank as if he had scolded her, bowing her head and casting her eyes down.

"I'm glad to have you home again," Rin said, smiling and nodding. Her voice was heavy with fatigue. "Did you enjoy spending time with Hanone?"

"Yes, but Lady Shiroihana didn't let us play much and Hanone doesn't even like to play really. She's clumsy but really cute. She likes raw meat a lot…"

"Did you learn anything?" Sesshomaru asked.

Saya shrugged. "I met Masuyo again!" She turned and grinned in his direction but her lips drooped into a frown when she saw his paleness and his dull eyes. "Masu?"

Rin cleared her throat and shifted her position, leaning forward to engage Masuyo's attention. "I apologize for your circumstances, Masuyo. I understand you must be feeling more than a little upset right now, but please know that you are welcome here."

Masuyo said nothing, merely moved his fingers over his hands, tracing the bumps of his bony knuckles. The touch and pressure of it eventually desensitized his skin to the point that he could no longer recognize it as being his own fingers. Rin's words were dim in his ears, lost amidst the numbness, like a mouse squeaking in the howling wind of a blizzard.

"We've arranged for you to be tutored along with Saya. Master Kuenai has agreed to accept you as his student. He is a strict, but talented teacher. He was my teacher, and Lord Sesshomaru's as well. It is no small honor that we afford you, Masuyo. You will be only the second human that Kuenai has tutored."

"Kuenai?" Saya asked, gasping. "Momma—why won't you be my teacher anymore?"

Before Rin could answer, Sesshomaru interjected sternly, "It is an honor to have Master Kuenai as a teacher. You will express gratitude for the opportunity we have arranged."

Saya made a noise like a dog, a little growl of intense frustration. "I was just asking why—"

"Saya," Sesshomaru said, using her name like a punctuation mark, cutting her off, silencing her. It was as good as physically gagging her and it even managed to draw Masuyo up out of the blank numbness of his mind.

As Saya bowed alongside him, Masuyo stayed sitting upright, watching the faces of the inuyoukai before him. Sesshomaru's lips were tight, the hawkish gold of his eyes sharp and bright like fangs or talons. Rin's shoulders were set low, as if she were slouching with fatigue. Most of her face drooped, distinctly tired. Her hands twitched in her lap and Masuyo's gaze flew to them. She held her hands with the palms to her obi, to her stomach.

From the screen door that led out of the audience room and deeper into the palace residence, a high pitched sound came that wormed its way into Masuyo's brain, scratching at his consciousness. He jerked his head and stared at the door as the thump of footsteps approached.

Saya groaned loudly. "Can't you control him, Father?"

Sesshomaru was glaring at Saya for her outburst. It was not a lip-curling snarl, but his eyes had narrowed down into hard, vicious slits of gold, like sunlight piercing between a break in white clouds. Yet for all of this emotional display, it was Rin that scolded their daughter. "Saya," she breathed, "you should be ashamed of yourself for addressing your father so disrespectfully."

Dutifully, Saya lowered her gaze, but Masuyo could see that she wasn't fully convinced of the wrongness of her own actions.

Something impacted the closed screen door, making it shudder and creak. A growl, distinctly dog-like, came from the other side. A woman's voice cried out, pleadingly, "Your highness! Please! The lord and lady are busy, you can't see them!"

Sesshomaru rose and went to the door before the woman had finished speaking. He slid it open, allowing Masuyo to see for a split second the source of Saya's irritation. Splinters of wood fell from the door as Sesshomaru opened it. A child sat on the other side, little more than a toddler. He sneezed and pawed at his nose when the wood splinters fluttered loose and landed on his head. Masuyo had time to see dark hair and the flash of golden eyes as the child lifted his gaze up to look at Sesshomaru. Then came the white of his smile as Sesshomaru stepped into the hallway and his pant legs blocked Masuyo's sight.

The door slid shut behind Sesshomaru.

"Saya," Rin said, pulling all attention back to her. She held out her arms and Saya got to her feet and ran forward. She collided with Rin and wrapped her arms around her, snuggling into her mother's chest like a child. Masuyo heard her murmuring incoherently, and as Rin returned the embrace Saya's unintelligible words turned into weak, whimpering tears.

Masuyo shifted uncomfortably. He examined the tatami mats, the weave of the fabric and straw. When he closed his eyes, Masuyo saw the memory-shadow of the mother-daughter couple on his closed lids. His mind reshaped it like a potter working with clay until he could see his own mother embracing each member of his family, his older brothers, his sister, and his younger brothers.

With every ounce of his will, Masuyo refused to cry. He would endure amongst the strange inuyoukai family. He would learn from them if he could, but they would never become his true family. The castle would never be his home. Whatever their plans for him, Masuyo vowed to be as apart from them as the sun was from the moon, as water from stone.

* * *

Kagome held her palm up behind the candle in her bedroom, feeling its heat radiating on her skin. In her other hand she held the glittering diamond necklace that Inuyasha had given her earlier that day. It was brighter than the twinkle of the stars outside. Surely ancient peoples had looked at diamonds and other shiny gems and thought that the gods themselves had caught starlight inside, trapped their light as efficiently as the Shikon Jewel had held the fours souls inside it.

She had just come in after dousing the lights around the house. Even while she held the necklace and prepared for bed, her thoughts strayed, never satisfied with sticking to one subject, the lifelong habit of a mother. She worried about Akisame, who had reappeared mysteriously only an hour or two ago covered in dirt. Although as messy as she had ever been even as a young girl, Akisame had been quiet, reserved. When Kagome asked where she was, Akisame offered an excuse that she'd been craving mushrooms so she'd gone out prowling for them. Kagome wrestled with the desire to interrogate and scold her daughter further, but the gentle smile that graced Akisame's face as she spoke kept Kagome silent. Akisame had a bath and went to bed, Kagome prepared to do the same.

Years of experience had taught her to see connections, particularly social ones. Inuyasha and Akisame were working together, that much was clear. At first Kagome had been baffled, but now Akisame's shy, skittish behavior further baffled and fanned the fires of Kagome's suspicion. She recalled the way her hanyou's face had warmed when she mentioned Akisame being lonely without Koinu around. Now she thought she knew what had crossed his mind when she'd told him that…

Behind her Inuyasha was dozing, fully clothed, snoring lightly. As he had aged and grown accustomed to staying in one spot—usually their house—the hanyou had proven himself a heavier sleeper than Kagome could have ever guessed. He had not heard her come in that she could tell, and now, as the necklace clinked metallically, Inuyasha's breathing stayed slow and constant.

Kagome set the necklace down on the small nightstand in a slow, reverent motion. She tugged on clothes, shedding them at first, then donning nightclothes. Then she blew out the candle, not needing its light to crawl under the blankets. As the oily, snakelike smoke rose from the candle, Inuyasha at last stirred, woken not by sound or a change in light, but by his nose.

"Wha—?"

"Shh," Kagome whispered. "It's just me."

He cursed in the dark, but it was without true passion. He rubbed at his face. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"Well, lying in bed tends to lead to falling asleep," she teased.

"You took so long," he grumbled, ears flicking.

Kagome settled onto her side, facing him in the blackness. She made out the wet sheen of his eyes, half-lidded by the remnants of sleep. She propped her head up with one hand. "Do you have another gift for me?" she asked, purposefully dropping her voice to insinuate something naughty.

Inuyasha's ears fell back. "Feh," he grunted. Even with the monosyllabic answer alone, Kagome knew her husband had picked out her hint. "I wanted to talk to you first."

She couldn't stop herself from laughing, but she knew it was a mistake when she felt him stiffen and inhale sharply. "I'm sorry…" She sobered herself by recalling his blindness to Koinu's affections, and before that to Sango's feelings for Miroku. Even after two decades with him, Kagome didn't understand everything about him completely. How could he be so keen to spot danger and her own arousal, but absolutely no one else's?

"I'm listening," she reassured him, scooting closer and hooking one leg over his knee. As she shifted, Inuyasha sighed and rolled onto his back, allowing himself and her a more comfortable position. Kagome laid her head on his shoulder. The night was warm and as the sun and the temperature had dropped moisture had fallen out of the air, as if wrung out of a sponge by an invisible fist. It would be a difficult night for closeness, but the clammy moisture that collected between them was expected and ignorable.

"I've been thinking about what you said—you know—about Aki being lonely…?"

Kagome fought to control her amusement, to keep him from hearing it. "Really?"

She sensed by the way he breathed that she'd failed, but he chose to let it pass. "If Koinu's going to be running around with Kasai now—"

"Inuyasha, I hardly think he's really going to—"

"We should have another pup," Inuyasha blurted in his deep grumble.

Kagome stayed silent, startled by his abruptness. She had anticipated something like that as his suggestion, but had half-doubted her own suspicions. In the past Inuyasha had been eager to have more children after Akisame, but the episode with Rin, which led to Sesshomaru sneaking into their household and threatening to kill Koinu, had cut off such considerations. Inuyasha put that energy into protecting his current babies, training Koinu in particular to be a skilled fighter. The silent hope was that if Koinu came across a threat like the one Sesshomaru had posed so many years ago, he would defend himself and escape whether or not Inuyasha was there. And Akisame? Well, Inuyasha couldn't break his image of her as a small pup, easily held and protected. In a perverse way his desire to keep her safe had left her unprotected.

And now that Inuyasha had seen at last that his children were growing up, no longer as helpless and dependent on him, he had turned back to the previous desire. The world was probably still not safe enough for a defenseless pup, but Inuyasha defined his life and his world by what he had to protect.

Her silence had lasted too long. Inuyasha fidgeted uncomfortably. "You don't want—"

"No, that's not it…"

"Then what?" he demanded with aggression that surprised her. "It would help Akisame. She'd love to be a big sister. And Koinu—"

"You spoke to her about this?" Somehow the thought of Inuyasha talking to their daughter about such a thing was incomprehensible. She couldn't picture it. Akisame would huff and blush and refuse to listen. Actually, she saw Inuyasha doing the same thing. And yet, they were so alike that perhaps they knew how to approach it with one another in a way that would not embarrass. If that was the case, Kagome envied them for the insight. There were times when both her husband and her daughter seemed like space aliens.

"Yeah," he replied, shortly.

Kagome was inclined to doubt him, but then she remembered the way he had been so confident that Akisame wouldn't be home when he gave her the necklace. And before that, Akisame had known what her father was up to, where he was and what he was doing. With a shock, Kagome realized that they had been scheming together. They had plotted their move not just for the necklace, but for _this_. Even the skittish way that Akisame had avoided her when she'd come in covered in dirt, claiming to have been out eating mushrooms. She had gone to the baths and to bed without hardly a word.

"This is what she wants?" Kagome asked, mystified.

Inuyasha didn't answer. Instead he moved his shoulder, dislodging Kagome from her resting spot. He lifted his head and peered down at her through the darkness. His ears were tucked backward, the only detail Kagome could make out through the faint, gray light sneaking in between the closed window shutters. She started to speak but Inuyasha lowered his face down to hers in a slow, deliberate motion. It was not a kiss, yet somehow it was just as intimate, if not more. His nose pressed into her cheek, his breath puffed on her chin, and she could even feel his eyelashes fluttering as he blinked.

The tension left her body and she raised her arms, wrapping them around his waist. "Are you sure?" she whispered.

"You smell like candle smoke and rice," Inuyasha murmured, breathing against her skin.

Two decades of experience told her that was a _yes._

She drew in a shaky breath, allowing her own emotion to surge forward. "I—I'm not as young as I used to be."

"You ain't old," he growled. "If it wasn't for…" he paused with embarrassment, "…me…you would've had as many pups as Sango." His infertility had always controlled the number of times Kagome could conceive. Each child was planned and precious. Inuyasha had one night when he was truly fertile, when the two genetic halves that made him separated into viable seed. That one night did not always coincide with Kagome's own cycle. In fact they had tried for several months before Akisame had been conceived.

In the years since Akisame had been born, Kagome had felt Inuyasha's concern for their children's protection too. She had also seen Sango's suffering with miscarriage. If the demon slayer, as tough as the diamonds that made up the necklace Inuyasha had given her, had cracked a little under the trauma of such loss, if the same thing happened to Kagome and she lost a pup that had been so carefully conceived, could she recover? She feared all of the mounting risks, and partly dreaded the hard work another child would entail, and yet…

The feathery caress of Inuyasha's breath on her cheek suddenly made her shudder and close her eyes against a rush of tears. Her chest constricted as she remembered the warm weight of her babies' bodies on her stomach or her chest and the little puffs of warm air as they breathed on her neck. It was not the clammy, hot breath of a ravenous lover, but the innocent, milk-sweet kiss of heaven. She hadn't felt it in long years, and the frustration and pain she felt at the distance she perceived between herself and Akisame suddenly felt as an undisguised longing for that forgotten innocent intimacy.

She let out a wet, whimpered laugh and asked, "When's the next new moon?"

* * *

_Well wish me luck! I have spring break coming up and I'm trying to defeat my cold. Ugh. _


	41. Transformation

A/N: I keep promising that this story is going to end, and then I decide something else has to be written. This time I realized Koinu's powers needed to be explored, and I had some fun with Inuyasha, Kagome, and Akisame. If you don't know, and if by chance you miss it in reading, unagi is a Japanese aphrodisiac. **Unagi** is raw sea-eel. Guess who's eating that…

Disclaimer: I do not own them; I merely borrow for my enjoyment. Apparently this is now true for video games that I spend good money on too.

Last Chapter: Masuyo and Saya made their journey to Nejiro, one of Sess's main castles where Masu wondered with alarm just what plans Sess and Rin have cooked up for him. Very briefly he saw Saya's little brother, heir to the Western Lands. Also Inuyasha and Aki conspired to make Kagome at last agree to have another baby.

* * *

**Transformation**

The summer season waned. Crop harvests occupied the common people and caused an increase in the number of exorcisms, exterminations, and slayings. Irritations from youkai during the growing season could be ignored, but as the promise of fresh produce from ripened fields or meat from summer-fattened livestock loomed, hungry youkai often appeared out of the mountain forests, eager to make a harvest of their own. The languidness of the summertime became little more than a dream, a nighttime mist that had been burned away by the rising sun.

Leisure was almost a thing that also belonged in dreams. Koinu saw with new eyes how easygoing his home life truly was. The slayers had more requests than they could fill, more traveling than they could ever manage. The house became a lot bigger as it emptied. Nobe joined Tisoki and Kohimu as a partner and an apprentice, actively training beside them. The threesome specialized in slaying demons with little or no spiritual aspect, like the marauders on the crop fields. If a youkai displayed a spiritual aspect, however, Tisoki was more than able to deal with it.

The other group became specialists in slaying by purification rather than physical attack: Miroku, Kasai, and Koinu. As the most junior among them, in training and in age, Koinu performed the menial tasks in the group by writing out sutras, calling for maids at an inn if they traveled, pouring tea or setting a table, and cleaning up if a purification ended in an explosive, bloody mess. In actuality the group broke the tradition often. Kasai poured tea and set tables, Miroku wrote out sutras to keep his calligraphy sharp, and Koinu usually had help from both cleaning up a messy job.

Koinu learned a new art through pain and sweat: self-mastery. To best use the miko powers that lay hidden within him, to help Miroku and Kasai, Koinu had to silence the inuyoukai within him. Before Miroku met with customers and during the battles or purification rituals, Kasai or Miroku would turn their own powers on Koinu, transforming him. After each transformation, Koinu learned to either summon or suppress the inuyoukai blood coursing within.

Tantalizingly close was the possibility that Koinu would be able to transform _at will_. Both Kasai and Miroku had experienced moments when they paused right before purifying Koinu to gasp with shock, swearing that his hair had flashed black in anticipation, or his ears had changed shape. The exhilaration of it was both terrifying and seductive. Was this a slice of how Shippo felt with the possibility of masquerading as any shape he wanted? Koinu could choose from two forms now and although being human robbed him of strength and superior senses, Koinu found appreciation in it that Inuyasha never had as humans that he didn't know stared him fearlessly in the eye and smiled, as coy girls working in the fields blushed when they saw him beside Miroku, dressed as another monk.

He sent letters to his parents, explaining parts of his discoveries, and then dared asking his mother to teach him as if he were a priestess or a priest. It was weeks later before the messenger that traveled between the east coast and the slayer's village at last arrived back with a reply.

* * *

Inuyasha was the one to hold the letter first. The messenger that passed between their villages and always carried letters between the two families, and sometimes messages forwarded through the slayers from Tsukiyume in the Middle Lands, was a merchant who traded talismans made from youkai bones. He didn't much like Inuyasha, but enjoyed Kagome's company and loyally gave her the sealed, unread letters in exchange for a bit of food, a few coins, or even just a warm smile.

For his part Inuyasha thought the messenger was too suave and those exchanged smiles were invitations into his bed.

At the market that day, Inuyasha was alone, out on a quiet mission. He had a bag of mushrooms that he'd helped Akisame gather. His daughter walked behind him with the twins, Umou and Appu. Inuyasha kept one ear trained on their voices though he didn't listen purposefully to what they were saying. He let the distance between himself and his daughter widen a bit as he came to his destination.

It was the fish vendor, a burly, overweight man who could gut a fish in under a minute flat. The shop stank nauseatingly of fish and salt preservatives but Inuyasha wrinkled his nose and entered the open door of the place anyway.

The vendor caught sight of him at once. "Inuyasha—forgive me, I don't usually see you here. Is Lady Kagome well?"

"She's fine," Inuyasha told him in a strangled bark.

"Ah, well," the vendor's gaze flicked briefly to where Akisame had stopped just outside the door. Her face had scrunched up with disgust at the smell. The twins had stopped outside too, not just because of the smell or because Akisame had halted there. They knew that the vendor didn't want them to come inside. Girls were bad luck for fish and fishermen, and of course twin girls were even more of a curse. With such unlucky company, the vendor looked to Inuyasha and decided to cut the chatter to a minimum. "What do you want?"

"Unagi." Inuyasha fidgeted, adjusting the sack on his shoulder. "Is this enough?"

"What are they?"

"Mushrooms," the hanyou replied. He didn't look at the vendor directly, his golden eyes stared at the wood floor or the walls, the slatted windows.

"Just one sea eel? I have some older ones but the meat isn't as fresh…"

Inuyasha rolled his shoulders. His face had begun to flush a light red. "Whatever I can get for this bag."

The vendor retrieved the meat and wrapped it in cloth. As he made the exchange he considered teasing the hanyou but a quick sight of the sharp, long claws on his strong fingers made him think twice and keep the visit strictly professional. "Fresh yesterday," he said, finalizing the sale. "Best you can get around here. How about the mushrooms?"

"They're all fine. Aki and me picked them this morning."

As Inuyasha left the thick, cloying stench of the fish behind, Akisame walked right next to him, investigating his purchase. She had ditched the twins unfortunately, or more likely they had left her. Inuyasha inwardly cursed the flightiness of humans.

Akisame pulled on his sleeve. "What fish did you get?" Her nostrils flared, already trying to uncover the answer for herself.

Inuyasha switched the meat into his other hand, hiding it from her. "Knock it off."

"Sea eel?" Akisame asked, raising an eyebrow. Her lips curled up and then down, caught in a smirk that might have wanted to become a frown.

Distraction came from behind them, shouted. "Inuyasha!"

Father and daughter turned as one unit. Inuyasha's ears swiveled forward at fill attention while Akisame crossed her arms over her chest, irritated at the interruption but also thankful for it. She could pretend that she hadn't noticed her father's purchase now and go on without embarrassing him or herself any further. Unagi, or sea eel, was known as an aphrodisiac…

It was the letter carrier. He passed off a small bundle of them to Inuyasha without asking for payment. "News from your son," he murmured, smiling cordially.

Inuyasha accepted the letters with a grunt. "I don't have anything to…"

"I only charge when the letters are from nonfamily members." He waved his hands is a dismissive motion, silently telling Inuyasha not to worry about money or an exchange of goods. "Is Lady Kagome well?" he inquired, peeking around Inuyasha, searching for a quick sight of the hanyou's beautiful wife. When he didn't find her his gaze slid slyly to Akisame and admired her long black hair.

"She's fine." He gave a growl, cutting the messenger's staring short. "Come on Aki."

As they turned and walked out of the village, passing fields where men and women bobbed up and down in their wide, white sunhats. The sky was dappled by clouds and the heat had grown oppressive though mercifully the rainiest point of the summer had passed, leaving this heat to be dry. Akisame watched the people in the field, imagining the tadpoles that would be squirming around their ankles in the watery rice paddies, and in the dry fields she considered the beetles and snails with a smirk. As a child she had often come out just after the sun had set, when the villagers had begun returning to their homes, leaving only a few men to stand watch, to protect the crops that would sustain them through the winter in the fullness of time. Akisame had decided to help them by collecting the snails, slugs, and beetles that ate the leaves of their plants. She enjoyed the crunch of the beetle carapaces, and the slimy, chewy texture of the slugs. The snails she brought to her mother.

She had never done it because she was hungry—more because it made her feel useful, practical, and it was fun. It fulfilled something deep and primal within her that she had no name for. As she'd gotten older, however, both parents and Koinu had ordered her to stop. Adulthood stretched out before her: long, tedious, and boring.

"Here," Inuyasha said, shoving the bundle of letters at her and breaking her musings. "Start reading, would you?"

Akisame snipped the cord of thick, knotted string that bound the letters together and began leafing through them. As usual the letters were almost exclusively addressed to Kagome. Akisame had learned over the years to identify the writer by the calligraphy on the outside of the folded letter. The tight, neat, educated male script was Miroku's. Sango's was flowing, gentle, and soft, and it also used a sloppier form. Rarely letters from strangers came in handwriting that Akisame never recognized, but sometimes identified by scent. She was beginning to learn Tsukiyume's calligraphy as the hanyou girl sent more and more letters to Shippo. Letters from strangers usually came addressed to _Inuyasha_ or _the Household of Inuyasha._ As if Inuyasha was her family's surname…

She ignored the majority of the letters as she usually did and instead focused on several with calligraphy that seemed to smack her in the face or shout in her ear. She had practiced throughout childhood beside the owner of the hand that had written it—and one of the letters was addressed to her.

They reached the house, not bothering to open the gate but jumping over it instead, and found Kagome sitting under the shade of the trees she had planted years ago before Koinu or Akisame had ever been born. The trees had long since dropped their blossoms; now tiny fruits dotted their boughs, hidden amidst the foliage. Akisame ran to her while Inuyasha disappeared inside with the smelly bundle of sea eel.

In the kitchen, with one ear cocked and listening through the door, which he had left open, Inuyasha unwrapped the sea eel. It was a slimy, ribbed meat. A proper preparation would have involved smoking and flavoring the meat, though it would not be truly cooked. But Inuyasha had no qualms about rawer meat than that, yet the sliminess of the eel perturbed him—and it didn't help that Kagome had already spoiled his appetite with a breakfast of fruits and treats from her era. But the new moon was in two days…

Without bothering to chew more than a few bites, Inuyasha slurped the eels down with a grimace and wiped at his mouth. Outside Kagome and Akisame had both started exclaiming with excitement at something in the letters. He was still swallowing as he walked back out of the kitchen with his white ears cocked up and out, listening.

"What's all the yelling about?"

Kagome had passed the letter to Akisame. She grinned at Inuyasha from under the shade of the tree, her eyes glistening. "Koinu has my powers!"

Inuyasha shifted from one foot to the other and then hopped down from the veranda, landing just shy of the puddle of afternoon shade that surrounded Kagome's tree. "Didn't we already know that?"

"He's using them almost like Mom," Akisame clarified. She had settled back in the clump of grass at the foot of the decorative tree. Though the sunlight wasn't in her face the girl stared at her father's feet with narrowed eyes. Inuyasha knew instinctively that it wasn't the sun that was bothering her.

Over the weeks his relationship with Akisame had changed and morphed. She had been the odd-child out before, left behind while Inuyasha focused on Koinu and lived in denial that one day his daughter might have to face the world alone, and she might have to stare down enemies that were so tall they blocked out sun, moon, and stars, just as he had once fought for his own life against such impossible foes. Fear of losing her, or of failing to protect her had given way to pride as his daughter carved diamonds with Tetsusaiga and kept up at his side when they leapt through trees, or when her nose was as sharp as his own searching out a summer breeze. He had at last started seeing her as more than a pup in need of protection, but as a sentient young girl. With that knowledge Inuyasha had also realized the depth of Akisame's feelings for Koinu, the way she had floundered when he had first taught her, always comparing herself to her brother…

Conspiring against Kagome had also helped draw them together. As embarrassing as a subject as it was for Akisame and Inuyasha they had discovered that the idea pleased them both. Inuyasha saw in his daughter a sign of Kagome's influence when her golden eyes lit up at the possibility of a younger sibling. For all of her wrestling, dirt-rolling, bug-eating nature, Akisame could also feel the maternal instinct. Like Koinu, Inuyasha had no doubt that she would protect, teach, and nurture a younger brother or sister with joy.

"Give me that," Inuyasha snapped and lunged forward with sudden violence to snatch the letter from Akisame. The girl allowed it but made a face of disapproval.

Inuyasha scanned over his son's letter with an impatient gaze that stripped Koinu's words of their beauty. Koinu was not blunt in any description, everything was written out with a detail that made his father's eyelids droop. He snorted. "Kagome?"

"You really should learn to ask before taking things, Inuyasha," Kagome scolded him.

"Did you teach our son to ramble like this? Feh, I can barely read this…"

"Koinu's writing is beautiful," Kagome said and her tone told Inuyasha that she had taken a sharp offense as both Koinu's mother and his teacher. "He has an excellent vocabulary and he uses it in the letter. I'm sorry if _you_ can't keep up with it…"

Inuyasha's ears swiveled atop his head, nervous at her scolding and distracted as he tried to glean a quick meaning from Koinu's letter. He was also caught up in reflecting on his own lessons as a young child. He had hardly been able to learn through the taunts and teasing of other children, and even his teachers, all of whom used him as the bad example for the classroom. Old horror swept through him and Koinu's calligraphy faded before his eyes as memory swept up out of the deep: the teacher that had brought a file into the classroom and taken Inuyasha's hand to file down the claws. _"Demon kind does not have a society because they are both physically and mentally inferior, class. That is why you must always keep your nails filed and clean."_The teacher even remarked that Inuyasha's teeth could benefit from the same treatment and the pup returned home with blunted claws and crying to his baffled mother. Nightmares followed where the teacher held him down and took the file to his canines, sawing them down until pain streaked into his temples…

His fingers twitched and Inuyasha hurriedly gave the letter back to Akisame. "I don't have time to read it. Just tell me what it says."

"Koinu is working with Miroku and Kasai. They perform exorcisms and demon exterminations using their spiritual powers. Koinu says it's hard work and…" she paused, squinting at the page and then smiling toothily, "He's eager to come home for a break."

"When are we going to go get him?" Inuyasha asked Kagome, ears pricking up with attention.

Kagome ignored his question for a time as she leafed through several other letters and handed them out. She tore open one from Miroku and answered her husband even as her eyes started moving over the page. "In the fall. After the trees have changed color but well before the first snow."

Inuyasha puffed audibly and twisted around at the waist to peer at the trees of the forested hill outside of the fence that surrounded their family estate. Most of the trees were still bright green, but a significant number had given themselves over to the fall season. Their leaves gleamed yellow and gold as they swayed in the breeze. They were all of a similar species that always turned its leaves in the fall sooner than the others and leafed out in the spring before its comrades. A colder species probably coming from further north. In another month most of the trees would have changed color—but Kagome could have conceived by then.

Inuyasha sighed and his ears drooped, troubled. He turned back to his wife and daughter and let his gaze rest on Akisame, on her bare feet scuffed with dirt and covered in calluses that marked her hard work and strength. Pride swelled in his chest and a little satisfied smile spread over his lips.

Kagome gasped and covered her hand with one hand. Akisame asked, "What is it?"

Without pausing in her reading, Kagome replied, "Miroku says Koinu will be able to masquerade as a human at will, whenever he wants."

Inuyasha frowned. "Why the hell would he want to do that?"

"Dad," Akisame called, laughing at his expression. "Haven't you ever wanted to walk through a village without being stared at?"

"It's the fucking humans that have a problem, not me." But the shudder of his ears and the wrinkle of his nose hinted at his lie. In his youth he had wanted to become full-demon, yet paradoxically he had always associated more closely with humankind. It was humans who could be deceived by a simple change in appearance, other youkai would know by scent that Inuyasha was only half-demon. It would have been useful to be able to join human communities at will, to control his appearance the way Koinu apparently could, but the hanyou could not shake the stubborn preference he had for keeping his true form as hanyou, for claiming as much power as he could rather than tossing it aside to blend in.

"Miroku also says he knows Koinu can reclaim his demonic power already at will." She stopped and smiled wide with a sudden outburst of pride. "He says Koinu is a wonderful communicator and charms all of their customers."

"Feh," Inuyasha grunted. "Miroku's been teaching him too long." When Kagome glared at him, Inuyasha shrugged and smirked at her, trying to pass of what he'd said as playful. He would have prayed to any god to keep Koinu from returning home to Kaede's village dressing, behaving, and flirting the way Miroku had in his youth. The image came, unbidden, of Koinu dressed in Miroku's robes, down on his knees, holding the hands of both Akisame's friends, the twins Appu and Umou, asking them to bear his children. Inuyasha shuddered and the hair on his arms stood on end.

"He isn't going to be like Miroku," Akisame spoke with confidence. She had opened her own letter from Koinu and was leafing through it. She let out a sigh when both Inuyasha and Kagome looked at her. She made a gagging noise for show. "He loves Kasai."

"Good for him," Inuyasha muttered absently. "Ain't none of my business," he said, looking purposefully at Kagome.

"I'm never falling for anyone," Akisame declared, abruptly childlike and defiant. "I'll stay here. Koinu can go off and be Miroku's apprentice monk. I'll carry Tetsusaiga and slay dragons."

"Never say never," Kagome murmured, smiling mischievously. She touched Akisame's long hair, stroking it.

"I mean it," Akisame intoned. "Never." Her eyes burned with a hard, dark emotion. She was missing Koinu again, fiercely. She would not say it aloud but her mind had formed a little brother or sister and she vowed allegiance to it, unborn and unformed as it was. Thinking of that took her mind and heart from thoughts of Koinu, easing her pain.

"You'll break a lot of hearts then," Kagome teased, still touching her daughter's hair fondly.

Akisame pulled away, losing patience with her mother. She used a saying her uncle Souta had introduced to her when he had been describing an old girlfriend that couldn't get over him. "Then too bad, so sad."

"Damn straight." Inuyasha grinned. "Now enough with the letters. We'll write back to Koinu tonight and send it with that asshole messenger tomorrow. Aki, time for training."

"But we were up before the sun was, Dad!" she whined. "And you didn't let me eat the mushrooms!"

"Too bad." Inuyasha pointed a claw at the house. "Today we'll do the swords. Go get Izoukago."

Akisame crossed her arms over her chest, unwilling to give in just yet. She threatened, "I'll tell Mom what you got in the village."

Inuyasha spluttered indignantly and blushed bright, magnificent red.

"What is this?" Kagome asked, startled by the change in their conversation. She gathered the letters and heaved herself up using the broad trunk of the tree. "Inuyasha? Akisame?"

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered, thinking fast. "Koinu never gave me this kind of trouble. Koinu was _obedient_."

This had the desired effect and Akisame growled. "Fine. Swords." She stomped off to get Izoukago.

Kagome stared perplexedly at her red raced husband. "What did you buy in the village?" she asked in a low voice.

Inuyasha cleared his throat and said, "Unagi."

Kagome started to laugh, doubling over and covering her lips with her sleeve.

"Shut the hell up," Inuyasha growled, ears flattening in embarrassment.

She straightened and shook her head vigorously. She stepped closer and whispered, "You don't need that and you know it."

He was blushing again, bright red. "Feh."

* * *

"It is not a serious infestation," Miroku informed them with a cautious nod of his head. "It does not harm people, merely deprives them of sleep. It may be a ghost or a kitsune. We must draw it out to purge the infestation from this inn."

Koinu listened benignly with both ears pointed attentively at the monk, but Kasai, with long years of experience working at her father's side, had picked out a detail in her father's message that set off alarms in her head. She asked, "What exactly does it do?"

Miroku cleared his throat, a stalling tactic. His gaze roamed over Koinu and Kasai. "It is a prankster of sorts. The innkeeper has said no one will stay here. He is losing money each night that rumor continues to spread of this infestation."

"Yes, Father," Kasai said, addressing Miroku formally, "but what does it _do?"_

Miroku sighed. "It causes visitors to sleepwalk, sleep-talk, and often brings on nightmares that the innkeeper described to me as 'unbearable.' When visitors wake from its influence they report seeing a ghostly figure before them with no eyes and a tongue like a snake. That seems to be the source of the infestation."

"How do we draw it out?" Koinu asked.

"I'm afraid it has never shown itself except after already afflicting visitors. Strange sounds haunt the rooms at night, but other than that…" He lowered his head in frustration. "I toured the inn, every room, and I felt nothing unusual. It must only appear here at night. We will have to lure it out by staying in one of the rooms. One of us will stay awake and hopefully it will make an appearance."

"It has not been violent?" Kasai asked, her voice trembling slightly.

"No one has died or been significantly injured," Miroku answered somewhat evasively.

"You should be the one to stay awake," Koinu murmured, staring at Kasai. She met his gaze and the warmth flowed between them, unspoken before Miroku, but clearly visible. Koinu knew that Kasai already had nightmares that were unbearable; she didn't need the influence of the evil inn's evil spirit to disrupt her sleep.

"Can you do it?" Miroku asked her.

Kasai paused, searching herself for fatigue. She had the most difficulty sleeping of the three of them on any normal night and therefore carried the largest sleep-debt. She concentrated on the thick anxiety that always closed over her mind and body when she lied down on the mattress and closed her eyes. Tonight that anxiety would be tripled with thoughts of the extermination and the possibility of the nightmares it could exert on her, possibly worse than those she had on her own. She drew in a deep breath and nodded, putting on a façade of easy courage to hide and dispel her worry. "I'll do it."

The manifestation had chosen a large inn, well-kept and boasting two stories. The rooms were wide and large, complete with broad tables, fluffy and luxurious sitting cushions that were sewn with silk. The room smelled fresh and clean as the slayers settled in for a complimentary meal and sleep. The maids were skittish and silent as they served the evening meal. The inn's steady loss of income was apparent in the small portions of their dinner. The maids stared with open suspicion at Koinu's white ears and hair, setting the youth on edge as the meal progressed.

Dessert was a few sweetly-spiced plums that Miroku enjoyed fastidiously while Koinu and Kasai declined. With the gathering dark outside Kasai and Koinu both rankled with anticipation.

With sticky fingers, Miroku passed out the sutras they had written out earlier in the day, a wide variety of spells to cover anything that the spirit might throw at them. As Kasai put her sutras away Koinu laid his out on the table and soundlessly moved his lips, practicing them. Pronunciation was important in the spell and if he got it wrong in the vital moment the spirit could escape or do them harm.

"With a spirit like this the best defense would probably be a miko like your mother," Miroku said, speaking to Koinu bluntly. "Unfortunately I can't train you in that way, though the methods are close. Kagome could imbue an arrow with her power, striking at enemies from afar while we must get close enough to throw the sutra."

The maids arrived and warily began setting up the bedrolls and laying out thick, rich blankets with silken embroidery over them with the name of the inn stenciled out. The ongoing suspicious glares in Koinu's direction made him bristle with anxiousness and irritation. When the maids stepped out at last, Koinu ventured the question that had troubled and intrigued him throughout their meal.

"Should I be human while we sleep?"

Kasai shook her head. "I think we might need your strength. We don't know what we're up against yet."

Miroku wasn't as certain. "We also don't know how it will react to the presence of a nonhuman." While Koinu weighed their opinions, Miroku added, "There is also the issue I mentioned earlier, Koinu. You have your mother's powers. A miko's abilities would be ideal here."

Koinu's ears flattened as he struggled with the question. His gaze slid to where Kasai stood near the doorway that led out into the garden in the courtyard beyond. Her black hair was long and loose, the way she always wore it before bed. He recalled the way she had tossed and cried in her sleep the night before, the scent of her tears salty and so sharp in his nose that it woke him out of his own sweet, calming dreams of racing with Akisame, wrestling with Inuyasha, and writing poetry with Kagome. The new moon was coming and Koinu could already feel the inuyoukai within him getting groggy, heavy and sluggish, but the training had given him great control over every part of his soul. He was confident that he could call upon the inuyoukai blood if he needed it that night.

"Kasai," he called and smiled without meaning to when she turned and looked back at him. "I think I can change back without any trouble if I need to. Are you comfortable with that?"

She nodded and smiled. "As long as you are!"

"We should retire early." Miroku had plucked the last of the spiced plums from its platter and bit into it with a contented hum. "I love plums," he admitted, closing his eyes with satisfaction.

Koinu smirked watching the monk, thinking of his own father slurping down Ramen messily. This was as close as Miroku came to such behavior.

"I'm going to see their baths," Kasai announced.

Miroku shook his head and spoke through a wet, goopy mouthful. "That will make you sleepy."

"You don't need it," Koinu told her. "You smell sweet, like the water lilies in the mountain pool."

Miroku made a face as he swallowed his latest bite of plum, watching the interaction between his daughter and Inuyasha's son with a knowing smile. He had lived with Inuyasha long enough to know that the hanyou often used scents as more than just compliments, but as flirtation. He pretended, for their sake, that he didn't understand it and exclaimed with further enjoyment at the plum he was eating.

Kasai was blushing. She came back into the room, but left the door open to air out the interior. The scent of the food lingered, unmoving in the close, still summer air. It had been a hot day, but thankfully not very humid. A dry heat would encourage sleep for them, a good thing for Koinu and Miroku, bad for Kasai.

The maids cleared away the plates from their meal and after a brief time spent discussing final plans and backup options, the three settled into their futons for the night. Before retiring, Koinu concentrated while Miroku settled under his covers and closed his eyes, falling asleep swiftly. Kasai laid on her side beneath her covers, watching Koinu's effort. The pup closed his eyes, flattened his ears, and frowned deeply as he turned inward, trying to pry the miko powers hidden within him up and out of their hiding place, their home inside his resistant flesh. He had been trying for weeks to transform at will and within the last few days he had managed to do it without having Kasai or Miroku use their own powers to purify him. At times, however, his inuyoukai blood was too thick and refused to be overpowered.

Now it was docile, sleepy with the approaching new moon. It slipped aside easily, going dormant and allowing the human blood to surface completely. Kasai watched with open admiration as Koinu's white ears lost their fur and slipped under the cover of his darkening hair. A moment later he opened his eyes and blinked ferociously. "Did it work?"

"Yeah—you're getting better. Does it hurt?"

"Not like it used to," he sighed and let out a yawn. He peeled the covers away from his futon and settled down into it, burrowing like a puppy to its mother's side. He peeked at Kasai with one blue eye. "Will you be able to stay awake?"

She nodded solemnly. "Yeah." Then, laughing, she said, "I wonder what Dad will say in his sleep." Miroku had a habit of muttering interesting things while asleep: incantations, names, inventive curses, places, and more often than not embarrassing pillow talk. A new concern hit her as she saw Koinu smile, parting his lips to reveal his white, blunt human teeth. "Will you be able to stay human while you sleep?"

"For a while," Koinu murmured. "It will depend on my dreams, I guess."

From his futon, on Kasai's other side for she was in the middle, Miroku clucked his tongue. "Go to sleep Koinu. You can't control it while you're sleeping, don't worry about it."

"Yes sir," Koinu answered respectfully. He was on his right side, facing Kasai. He reached out to her and touched her cheek. It was warm and dry. Koinu's fingers left little blots of moisture, the sweat left over from his nervousness during their meal and from the effort of the transformation. "Don't fall asleep," he warned her. "Don't dream."

She caught his hand and squeezed it. "Go to sleep, Son of Dog."

It seemed no time at all before their breathing slowed into the pattern of deep sleep around her. At first Kasai lied with her eyes open, staring at the ceiling. They had left the window shutters open wide to encourage air flow and as time passed Kasai tracked the slow flow of shadows. The light was faint to her eyes, barely discernible. The moon was a mere sliver outside, like a splinter of bone, shaved off while one of her brothers, or Koinu now, carved skillfully. Watching its slow progress emptied Kasai's mind and made her vulnerable to sleep. Her eyelids closed and she dozed, only to snap awake when a dream-memory loomed up before her: Master Dani's plump, whiskered face with its beady eyes peering into her own.

She sat upright and breathed hard for a short time, shocked by the clarity of the image. Gradually she lied back down and stared at the ceiling, the beams of wood colored in various shades of darkness. Barely any time had elapsed since she fell into the dozing dream and she let out a breath of relief and hardened her will to stay awake.

Kasai drummed her fingers against the mattress to keep herself from falling asleep when the room fell into complete darkness. Now only starlight lit the room, and Kasai's eyes were barely sharp enough to make out the ceiling beams and, when she rolled onto one side and then the other, Koinu or her father.

Then Miroku, lying on his back, spoke with perfect clarity: "You've come to kill me."

She stayed silent, lying motionless. Her instincts shouted that the spirit had come over the sleepers, but at the same time Miroku often spoke in his sleep, and his words almost always surprised those that overheard them. She closed her eyes, pretending to sleep, and forced her breathing to slow. At the same time she reached into her robes for the bundle of sutras her father had handed out at the evening meal.

On her other side Koinu, who had been motionless all night except for doglike twitches in his arms and legs, suddenly started to talk too. "You can't kill me. You aren't strong enough. You're filled with fear."

His voice was thick with disuse from sleep, but Kasai could hear the softness of it, the same throat and mouth that encouraged and complimented her in the daytime turned against her in the night. She knew without a doubt that the spirit had arrived. She clutched the sutras but didn't open her eyes.

Koinu moved next to her and gave a small growl. Kasai opened her eyes and turned her head to watch with alarm as he curled under his covers. It was too dark for her to see his face, but by the closeness of his sound she knew he was lying on his side, facing her. Something changed, a flash of light. Kasai realized that Koinu had transformed. The brightness poking out of his covers now was his white hair and pointed dog ears.

Miroku's covers rustled then. He sat up with a deep groan and threw the covers off his legs. "Don't kill him, Sango," he said, slurring the words. "He's your brother; I won't let you have that on your conscience. Let me do it."

She listened to his progress as he moved with deftness that should have been impossible for a sleepwalker into the corner where he had left his staff leaning on the wall. Kasai heard it jangle as he picked it up. His footsteps were light and steady as he turned round and walked back toward the beds. The staff thumped, punctuating each set of steps.

Kasai hopped up, abandoning the bed. Like Miroku and Koinu she was dressed in her bodysuit under the evening clothes. She moved to the closed door and pulled open the sash, letting it and her night robe fall to the floor. She held the sutras, feeling their roughly-grained paper between her fingers. Her skin prickled as the spirit's negative aura reacted, brushing on her own the same way a person might irritate a cat by petting it the wrong way, rubbing its fur against the grain. She could feel its presence but could not see it.

Miroku's staff thumped and jangled by the beds. "Kohimu," Miroku murmured. "Take its head."

Kasai treaded cautiously around the room until she had found the lamp. The tiny ember inside glowed so faintly that it cast almost no light. Kasai opened the latch and blew into it, stirring it gently into life. She felt her back warm, felt hostile eyes staring her down and tensed. She held the sutras and cursed inwardly—it was too dark to read them.

Koinu growled in his bed. "You're filled with fear."

As if thrown at her by an outside force, Master Dani's face rose up before her. Terror sapped Kasai's strength for a moment. The sutras slipped out of her fingers as a tremor passed through her.

"Filled with fear," Koinu repeated in his sleepy growl. Kasai could feel the paralyzing truth in Koinu's unnatural words and even as she sensed the evil spirit materializing behind her, Master Dani's image, the memory of his hold over her, trapped and immobilized her.

Then Miroku stamped with his foot and groaned. "Sango, the ants are back."

The silliness of her father's sleep-talking, apparently random jabber now, snapped Kasai's terror, splintering it like the sliver of the moon outside. She saw Master Dani's face and remembered running after him when he had carried Kagome's limp body. She saw herself fighting him at every turn. She had stabbed him with a hairpin just before the parasite had taken control of her, she had escaped through a window after a bath, and ultimately she had survived.

She grabbed the sutras from the floor and blew into the embers of the brazier once more. This time the light spurted up just enough that Kasai could see the patterns of the characters.

An icy hand fell on her shoulder, the touch of a ghost. Kasai gasped and rolled sideways onto her feet. She stood upright and pivoted to face the ghost. It was exactly as Miroku had said the innkeeper described it: the eyes were black holes of nothingness and the tongue hung out of its mouth long, thin, and limp like a snake. The sight of it made Kasai want to laugh and cry with relief. _This is nothing,_ she thought. _I survived so much worse._

Almost without looking Kasai picked out a sutra and tossed it at the ghostly figure with a shout. The sutra stuck to the ghost and it glowed a deep, somber black-purple. The ghost gave a hissed scream. Its mouth lolled and the snakelike tongue wriggled like a worm. Kasai yelled another incantation and slapped another sutra onto the ghost. Its shriek grew shriller and louder—and then it puffed, exploding into dust.

Kasai shielded her face from the spray of fine blackish powder like ash. Bits of the ghost fell into the small flame of the lamp and spluttered, hissing as if water had touched it. Then its light changed into an eerie blue for a few seconds.

Kasai blinked as the dust started to settle out of the air, like snow. In the blue light of the room she saw Miroku standing over her futon, stamping with his feet and his staff, suddenly fall limp. She rushed to his side, coughing as she inhaled some of the ash left by the ghost. "Dad!"

The impact woke Miroku instantly and he cried out, holding his head. As Kasai knelt to help him sit up, she heard Koinu come awake, at once asking, "What happened? Is everything all right?"

His ears swiveled, shedding a fine layer of dust. They were lit blue by the lamplight, then changed starkly orange as the light corrected itself and burned through the last of the ash. Koinu gagged. "What is this stuff?"

Miroku had already identified it as he took a look around. "That would be all that remains of this infestation." He squeezed Kasai by the arm and beamed with fatherly pride. "You had no trouble with it at all!"

"I've survived a lot worse," she murmured, spitting as she caught and tasted a little ask in her mouth. Then, darkly, she added, "Messier too."

Koinu sneezed and sniffled. "Ugh…I wish I was human so this wouldn't bother me."

"It doesn't help much," Miroku remarked. "Shall we leave this mess to the maids here and be on our way? I rather like the idea of a night under the stars. They will be very clear with the moon as thin as it is."

"The junior apprentice is supposed to clean it," Kasai reminded them, looking teasingly to Koinu.

The pup was too busy sneezing to answer.

"Do you really want to put Koinu through that?" Miroku laughed and then coughed, choking on the dust still filtering out of the air.

"No," she agreed. "Let's collect our fee and leave this for the maids."

* * *

A/N: This time I think the next chapter will be an epilogue...unless my muse takes hold and demands something else.


	42. The Future's Waiting

A/N: My life has continued to throw twists at me. Looking for a job. Probably can't afford graduate school at this point. Had kind of a squabble/serious discussion with my fiancé. Took up swimming at the college's recreation center. Continued having medical problems with my toes. I have this thing called Chronic Paronychia which is where the skin under my toe nails becomes infected, inflamed, but not painful. And I have no cuticle so it's an open wound essentially. They've been bleeding and oozing around the edges and the toenail has kinda stopped gorwing or slowed anyway. And no pain, which freaks me out. I've had a doctor look at them and proscribe Lamisil like it's fungal and then a dermatologist say it was probably bacterial, which they've already been treated for once. And the dermatologist's choice of treatments? Mix one part BLEACH and four parts water and use an eyedropper to put it on my cuticle/nail. WTF?! But I do it anyway. Doesn't hurt. It's been cultured but supposedly the culture results will take friggin 4 weeks to come back. What are they growing off it? Tomatoes?? Ugh.

Then my sister went to CA to visit our extended family, aunt and uncle and grandparents that is. And she had a biking accident. Caught her handlebars on a chainlink fence and went over them. She has a spiral fracture in her left hand and a third degree separation of her shoulder. That was earlier this week and now they're telling her she has to have surgery to correct the shoulder. My parents were freaking about it, paying it and because my sister is very distressed out there. My sister, just FYI, is a lot like Akisame. In fact many of my strong female characters end up being like my sister. She has always been a strong influence on me and my writing, thus many women in my stories show similarities. So basically she is like Akisame in CA, longing for her family, her bed, and in serious pain, on drugs, and feeling super guilty like all of this was her fault. Frankly it makes my toes look really pathetic. So my parents are thinking about driving out there and all this craziness, leaving me to house and dog sit.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. But suffice to say, this story doesn't want to end properly, but this is going to be the last chapter for it unless I have an outcry otherwise. It needs to end. Ugh.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Last Chapter: I can't remember. If you can't either, it might be good to go back and read it. I really am sorry I've been so slow updating. Okay. Shutting up now.

* * *

**The Future's Waiting**

The cycles were timed improperly, almost as if they purposefully planned to make Inuyasha's life difficult. The waxing and waning of the moon did not meet up with the ideal week of fertility in Kagome's body. Unagi or not, Inuyasha knew time was the only thing that could swing the cycles about until they overlapped one another, yet the hanyou was impatient, unwilling to wait for that. Time was his enemy—but more so it was Kagome's enemy. The older a human woman was while pregnant the more difficult it was for her and the child to survive. Kagome wasn't aware of his concern in the same way, her mind was still in the modern era where childbearing age had extended with better medicine and knowledge and labor rarely resulted in death.

So it was that when a third cycle demanded attention in the midst, that of the seasons turning, Inuyasha was more than a little irritable. It was time to fetch Koinu from the slayer's village, but the hanyou was preoccupied as he hatched a new idea to cheat his own cyclical fertility, to cheat his nature.

Shippo had returned from visiting the Middle Lands. He entertained the family with nighttime tales of gossip from inside the castle while Inuyasha stayed stiffly silent, watching the kit and his daughter across the table from him, considering something…

"Shimofuri's newborn son arrived back in the castle while I was there," Shippo explained. "The pup looks just like Shimofuri except the marks on his cheeks are darker. Lady Ginrei is very proud of him. They didn't know what to call him, but Tsuki started calling him Aoiro as a nickname and eventually Shimofuri and Ginrei settled on Aoibeki because of it."

"That's a dumb name," Akisame grumbled, making a face.

"No dumber than any other name," Shippo countered calmly. "What would you have named him? Or your own pups someday, what would you name a kid of your own?"

Akisame pushed her chin into the air defiantly. "I'm not going to have any children."

Shippo let out a quick, barking laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right about that."

Kagome started to disagree with her daughter, to try and convince her otherwise, but Inuyasha interrupted them, reaching his decision. "Shippo," he called and continued the moment the kit looked at him, "I'm going to send you and Aki to go get Koinu. You leave tomorrow."

"Alone?" Shippo peeped, shocked.

All three of his companions, especially his daughter and wife, were staring at Inuyasha as if he'd just said he was going to marry Miroku. Inuyasha refused to let their staring bother him though he did fidget momentarily. "Yeah. Aki—you'll take _Izoukago_ and dress as a boy. Shippo will be with you. You'll be safe."

Akisame nodded with a strange, sober exhilaration. "Absolutely. No one will guess I'm a girl on the road."

"Are you sure, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, frowning.

"Absolutely." His ears fell flat at her concerned stare and ongoing scowl. "What?"

"Nothing," Kagome said, wiping her expression clean. "It's just a little surprising, that's all."

"Aki can handle herself and Shippo travels alone all the time. They'll be fine." Inuyasha sniffed and made a show of yawning. "I'm going to bed. Night."

He rose from the table and walked off at a normal pace into his bedroom, but then hurried to the window, pushed it open, and hopped out. He knew the way to the village in the darkest of the night. He had the sense of direction of an animal, never lost for more than a moment. The village would be nearly silent, quiet under the light of the moon. Inuyasha made his way to the outskirts of the village to the priestess's hut. He would barter with the priestess; Hyakka was her name if he recalled correctly, for a certain charm…

* * *

Letters arrived in a bundle from the Western Lands, carried by a human merchant. The slayers knew immediately that they were from Masuyo. They were surprisingly short and stilted, but the family knew without Masuyo explaining it that he was uncomfortable, seemingly under watch. He described the castle, its bathhouse, its gardens, and his very large, comfortable bed. He assured them that he was well-fed and healthy, but underneath it the slayers saw his grief, his uncertainty in his status as a hostage. His letters contained sparse details about Sesshomaru and Rin or the rest of his family. Mainly Masuyo mentioned Saya.

They couldn't know that although Masuyo restrained himself heavily in his letters, he was keeping reams of notes secretly, like a scientist observing nature. Or possibly, like a prisoner plotting escape.

After the letters had circulated through the family, Miroku went over them again, studying every word and stroke of his son's calligraphy for any details he might have missed. While he was absorbed with rereading, Sango slipped into the narrow room he used as his office, positioned as it was under the stairs. Miroku looked up and blinked, readjusting his eyes from squinting at Masuyo's fine hand. His eyes had deteriorated over the years, becoming farsighted to a certain extent. His own handwriting had suffered as a result. He would never write as finely as Masuyo was now.

"Sango?" he asked.

She smiled at him and then closed the door behind her. As she turned her back toward him Miroku smirked and set the letter down. In spite of the years that had passed and all the children she had borne for him, Miroku still felt the urge to ogle her and grope her. But when he tried to rise up from the floor his knees popped and Sango had already turned round to face him again, finished with the door and halfway alerted to his attempt by the popping in his knees.

"What are you up to?" she asked with a playful suspicion.

"I was going to hug you."

She crossed her arms over her chest, unimpressed by the lie.

He tried again with a feeble shrug. "I was going to stretch my legs. What else would I do?"

Sango sighed, but she was smiling. "You are a perpetual liar. I hope you aren't punished for it in your next life."

"Sango! You wound me! Cruel woman. Did you only come in here to accuse me of some wrongdoing?" He grinned, expecting that she had come to him and closed the door with something…impure…on her mind.

His wife took two steps forward and knelt on the other side of his small desk. She reached out and brushed the letter from Masuyo, glancing at it with a frown before looking up at him. Her mouth opened and Miroku lost all hope of something pleasantly naughty when he saw the hesitance and uncertainty in her chocolaty brown eyes. "I've been thinking," she began.

"That does not sound unusual for you," Miroku teased.

Sango ignored him as years of marriage had taught her. "When Inuyasha comes here for Koinu we should suggest a betrothal."

Miroku's eyebrows shot up into his forehead with surprise. "Are you trying to get the boy killed?"

"He's sixteen now," Sango reminded him. "He was born in the fall." Sixteen was the age when a boy was officially considered a man. It was the age when many families started looking for suitable wives for their sons, and husbands for their daughters. Kasai was already sixteen. In the winter she would turn seventeen. She had been born just after Koinu had been conceived.

Miroku shook his head. "I think we should wait. They are close and they've both reached the age of maturity, I know, but—"

"Has the thought not occurred to you before?" Sango asked, looking perplexed. "You've been with them more than I have. Koinu is an excellent match for Kasai. He is patient and devoted to her and she spent her childhood with him. If there is one potential husband out there who will keep Kasai satisfied it will be Koinu. She is too much like you for anything else. If we picked someone else she would get bored and stray. We would only be causing her grief."

Miroku started tapping his nails on the small desk in front of him. "Yes, I'll admit, it has occurred to me. But it's too soon. She isn't ready and neither is Koinu."

"I didn't mean that we should start making real wedding plans," Sango explained. "I only hoped to broach the subject with Inuyasha. To discuss it as a likely possibility. We have Kohimu and Tisoki to marry off before we can think of Kasai."

Miroku frowned, internally disturbed by the knowledge that girls at sixteen were usually auctioned off quickly. Young men could wait and delay marriage until their twenties if they wanted to, but to find a young girl, a maiden unmarried at 19 or 20 was rare. It usually meant no one would marry her. Sango had been a little older than was traditional when Miroku had married her. Sixteen was old enough in the slayer village for marriage and many merchants, other slayers, and craftsmen that lived within the village walls had already approached Miroku, inquiring about Kasai. All of them promised to pay a handsome bride price, and all of them Miroku had turned away without mentioning it to Kasai at all. Sango knew, as she knew everything that happened regarding their family and their household. It was those suitors that had probably prompted Sango into action now.

He brought himself back into the present with a sigh. "I don't want to think about Kohimu and Tisoki. I think they will be bachelors all their lives."

"I'm sure you thought the same of yourself," Sango murmured, smiling.

Miroku glared at her playfully. "That was so long ago I can't remember what I thought."

"I remember it well enough. You were thinking: _who can I get to feel sorry enough for me to go to bed with me?_" She laughed as his face flushed red.

Miroku cleared his throat, working to keep Sango on topic. "You do understand that Koinu and Kasai aren't out there thinking about marriage."

"Yes, I know. But they should know it is possible for them, that their families will support them."

"I'm not sure that's the truth as far as Inuyasha is concerned!" Miroku chuckled darkly.

"We'll see when he gets here," Sango said. "Perhaps you will be surprised. Kagome has written to me saying he is…preoccupied." Her smile became distinctly naughty and Miroku felt his unmentionables flare with a sudden pleasurable heat.

"I know I am certainly preoccupied." He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

Sango shook her head. "Later, pervert. You know the moment we try something one of _your_ sons is going to come rushing in here demanding our undivided attention."

"But Sango, you are here and you have my undivided attention."

Sango was already on her feet and moving for the door. Her hand was on it, sliding it open even as he finished his sentence. "Later," she promised and disappeared out the door.

* * *

The maples had turned a brilliant vermillion and the aspens burst into color with yellow-gold leaves fluttering in the wind. The winding road that led up to the walls of the demon slayer village was covered in blue-green grass, wet and dripping with recent rainfall and morning mist. The night before had brought chilly weather, the first threat of frost.

On the occasional flat section crops had been planted. Squash, beans, peas, and cucumbers. Rice fields were lower on the mountainside. All of the fields had humans working in them, squashing pest insects, collecting ripened vegetables, and pulling weeds. They glanced up when they saw the two strangers ascending the path, squinting their eyes not against the sun, but in suspicion. The people of the demon slayer village had never forgotten that once this village had been completely wiped out by demon kind. Most humans were skittish around youkai of any type, but these villagers were particularly alarmed by the presence of youkai.

The visitors appeared to be little more than two boys. The older had long black hair, pulled back tightly and mud smeared on his face. The other was neater and cleaner and shorter, but he had reddish hair and a puffy tail. The villagers noted them at once as unusual, though they did not react at once because it was daylight and the visitors could be messengers or any other harmless traveler.

It wasn't long, however, before slayers blocked the travelers' path. A group of them road down the path on horseback while others ran down the hillsides to meet the unknown travelers, through the crop fields, never slipping in spite of the steep angle of the mountainside. A middle aged man with gray hair led the group of slayers who acted as guards for the village. His horse charged down the path first, snorting and rolling its eyes as it drew nearer to the two travelers.

"Stop!" the slayer commanded. He brandished a sharp, long spear and a powerful, thick arm.

The two boys, short and tall, stood abreast of one another, facing the rider with confidence even as more men on horseback, and slayers on foot, closed in around them. Workers in the field complained as one young, clumsy slayer with a sickle stepped on an unripe peapod and squashed it.

"We're here to see Miroku and Sango," the shorter boy with red hair replied.

The other taller boy wasn't paying attention to the spear-wielding rider any more. He pointed a clawed finger toward the young slayer with the sickle on the hillside some fifty feet away. "Tisoki! Where's my brother?"

The sickle-wielding slayer was indeed Tisoki, blinked and his mouth fell open with surprise. "Akisame…?" He looked toward Shippo and his stance relaxed right away. The fox was easier to recognize because he was undisguised.

The man on horseback shouted to Tisoki. "You know them both?"

"Yeah, I'll take them to my parents."

Tisoki sprang forward, crushing another few peapods and pea plants. The worker cursed at him with clenched fists. By the time Tisoki had reached them both the other slayers had left or set their weapons aside to help the field workers. Many of the slayers had already been working in the fields when the travelers had been spotted and they had left to get changed and collect their weapons. What better way to guard their village than to have the guards out on the path, ready to defend their home? The man on horseback sped up the hillside path, leaving Tisoki to deal with the new arrivals.

Tisoki grinned brightly at both Shippo and Akisame. He had tucked the sickle back into a spot designed for it at his waist and curled the chain up as well. It crinkled metallically as he moved. "What are you doing dressed like that?" he asked, speaking to Akisame.

Akisame had tied her hair back and had purposefully let her face get messy during the journey. Her feet were bare and caked with old mud and dirt and even grass. Her golden eyes were bright and feral. She wore the same clothes as Shippo, loose and short pants with a baggy, long-sleeved top. It was loose enough to hide her figure from afar, but close up Tisoki could spot the gentle swell of her small breasts beneath it.

"What are you staring at?" Akisame demanded grumpily.

Tisoki jumped and looked around nervously, anticipating a threat to his life from Inuyasha. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Good disguise. I really thought you were some obnoxious boy."

"Inuyasha isn't here," Shippo said, answering Tisoki's silent question.

"Really?" Tisoki made no effort to hide his relief. "Uh…why not?" Suddenly he blanched as a horrible thought hit him. "He isn't dead or sick is he?"

Akisame snorted. "No!"

"Oh, good then."

"He's trying to get Kagome pregnant," Shippo explained.

Tisoki made a face. "I didn't want to know that. Yuck." But the frown turned into a smirk after a moment.

"How did you know?" Akisame asked.

"It was obvious," Shippo muttered, rolling his eyes. "If you'd known Inuyasha as long as I have you'd understand."

Tisoki laughed, a loud but nervous twitter, and motioned toward the village, which was still a significant distance up the path. "Well I'll show you guys to Mom and Dad. And Koinu."

Shippo started walking up but Akisame paused, waiting for Tisoki to go ahead of her. The moment lengthened and became swiftly awkward. Tisoki blushed a bright, rash-like red and finally blurted, "Aren't you going to go, Aki?"

"I'm not going to walk in front of you," she told him, scowling. "Cuz I know you're going to feel me up or something and then I'm going to have to rip your hands off."

Shippo, already well ahead of them, burst out laughing.

"What? I would not!"

"You said you were going to lead the way anyway, right?" Akisame motioned for him to start walking. "I'll follow you and Shippo. Besides, you don't want these people to see you groping a little boy do you?"

For a moment he stared at her, uncomprehending. Then Akisame's clothing, her messy face, her tied back hair, all of it hit him again and he realized what she had been saying. Tisoki turned away from her and started walking swiftly, half running in embarrassment. Akisame followed behind him, smirking. _Izoukago_ thumped on her hip, filling her with satisfaction.

* * *

"Hold it like this," Kasai said and thrust out the pole in her hands to demonstrate. Her younger brothers, Riki and Koudo, mimicked her hold and stance. Standing beside them was Nobe, wearing a stern, solemn expression.

"The weapon gives you a greater reach than anyone without one, but you must keep in mind it can break with the wrong blow." She looked over her shoulder and called out, "Koinu."

Koinu had been lounging on the grass behind her, holding his own pole vertically, periodically trying to balance it on his nose. The grass was wet and cool against his back, oddly comforting. At Kasai's command he hopped up and brought the pole with him. He came and stood in front of her, holding the pole out. They made eye contact and held it for a moment, their faces serious and somber as all their past training had dictated.

"Hai!" Kasai yelled and swung her pole in a wide arc, trying to stab at Koinu with the end. He evaded it, hopping slightly to one side while swinging his own pole to block hers in just the right way—_wham!_ The poles clapped together and Kasai's cracked like a bone. It fell to the grass, splattering some of the early morning dew.

Koudo gasped. "Whoa! Good one Koinu!"

Koinu and Kasai pulled back from one another and resumed their starting positions. They bowed quickly to one another and Koinu walked a short distance away to the spot in the grass where he'd been laying until moments ago. He twirled his own pole and glanced over his shoulder at Kasai, flicking his ears. She smiled back at him as she tossed her broken pole of to one side.

"I want to break poles like Koinu! Can you teach me to do that, Koinu?" Koudo asked.

"That's not the lesson," Koinu told him. "You were supposed to be watching Kasai to see what _not_ to do."

Kasai moved to the small pile of straight practicing poles, all made from bamboo that the slayers cultivated and harvested each season. The real poles weren't made from bamboo, but more often from youkai bone which could be better decorated, better sharpened, and it was inherently stronger. Even human bones were stronger than steel. (A/N I have heard that's true but I didn't google it before writing. Could be bones are more brittle than steel, but stronger.) Therefore youkai bones made excellent weapons.

After selecting a new pole, Kasai walked up to her line of students and held out her weapon, dropping into a crouched, attacking stance in front of Riki. Brother and sister locked gazes as Riki lowered his own pole, touching it to hers.

"Hai!" Brother and sister swung at one another as Nobe and Koudo backed off but kept their eyes glued to the scene. Koinu, lying on his side in the grass, relegated for the time being into a teacher's aide, watched with a small smile.

Riki and Kasai sparred with the poles for several minutes. Riki's form was excellent and although Kasai had slightly more experience, she tended to use hers more like a sword. Eventually Riki tired and his defense suffered. Kasai made a final, calculated blow and Riki's pole split just as Kasai's had when she demonstrated with Koinu. Riki dropped his ruined pole and made a sour face as he wiped at the sweat on his brow. "You didn't have to break it."

"I know. I'm only showing you the way you should always try to hold it. Your enemy could snap it if you get tired and let it fall too low."

She moved down the line while Riki grabbed the two halves of his pole and removed them. Kasai took up the same position with Koudo. Her littlest brother bit his lip and clenched his jaw, making a very fierce expression, pretending to be a huge warrior. Training for Koudo was more of a game still, not the hard work it would be later.

He touched his pole to hers and the fight began. It ended as swiftly as it started though. Koudo tried to be aggressive with his sister but the attack was too huge for him to sustain. Kasai evaded it and pinned his pole to the ground with her own, then she brought her heel down with a shout into the center of Koudo's pole. It snapped just as the others had.

Koinu's ears flicked at the sharp sound and he grinned. "See, Koudo?" he called. "Anyone can have their pole snapped."

Koudo glared at his sister while he picked up the halved pole. "You cheated."

"I'm sorry," Kasai said, "but I wasn't cheating. Your form was sloppy, but it was very good considering your age."

She came next to Nobe and prepared to do the same exercise with him, but before they could start, Riki pointed behind them back toward the village. "Look! It's a fox!"

They turned as one to see what he was pointing at. Koinu got to his feet but didn't bother to pick up the pole. Already he recognized the aura as Shippo's.

"It's Shippo," Kasai said, sighing.

"Wow!" Koudo chirped. "I wonder what _he_ could teach us!"

"Nothing, just how to tickle people at dinner with your tail," Koinu said, chuckling.

"I don't have a tail!" Koudo whined. Riki shushed him as Shippo drew closer.

"Koinu!" Shippo yelled. "Miroku sent me out here to bring you back to the house." The fox was running on all fours though he was still in a mostly humanoid form. His tail was high in the air, bushy and flicking like a squirrel's in a territorial dispute. He stood upright when he was within a hundred feet. "You and Kasai both!"

Still holding the pole in her hands, Kasai sighed again and gripped it harder. She could already see Koinu's eagerness to follow Shippo back to the house where surely Inuyasha and possibly Akisame were waiting. _But why do they want me too?_ Something fluttered in her stomach, a nervousness, an anxiety at the prospect of being without Koinu over the winter.

"Is the lesson over then?" Nobe asked, hesitantly.

"You'll have to find Kohimu for more lessons," she said, offering a wan smile. "Good luck."

* * *

A few minutes later Koinu found himself hugging his sister, laughing lightheartedly and grinning like a fool. It astounded and thrilled him that their father had let Akisame come on her own.

"You've grown," he commented, seeing that she had added another inch since he'd last seen her.

She snorted, her nose wrinkling with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. She was already in the range of average female height of the Feudal era where women were always rather short and squat—and Akisame was still growing rapidly. She would outgrow Kagome and likely match Inuyasha's height. It was possible she could even exceed Koinu. "You've grown too," she mumbled. "You're growing into your ears especially well."

Self-consciously, Koinu reached up and touched the furry appendages. They had always appeared too large for him up until he'd entered his teens. While Koinu fidgeted, Akisame peeked around him to where Shippo was speaking quietly with Miroku, Sango, and Kasai in the little office space under the stairs to the second floor.

"What are they going on about in there?" she asked.

Koinu glanced back. His ears moved with his head, focusing on the conversation. Dog ears, with their radar shape, actually heightened his hearing above what Akisame's human shaped lobes could do. Fragments of conversation reached him and he frowned. "They have a letter they want to give to Father."

Kasai lifted her head and stared at Koinu from inside the narrow space. The door was only partly open so it obscured half of her face from Koinu's view. Her blue-violet eyes were wide and watery. Her mouth opened slightly and formed a few fast words. Koinu couldn't make them out.

"Koinu?" Sango called.

He started to walk forward and heard Akisame trailing uncertainly behind. Koinu stopped in the doorway, flicking his eyes between Kasai who was still staring at him with her wide, intense gaze, and the others who seemed to be a little tense but otherwise unconcerned. "Yes?"

Shippo was grinning, showing canines on the top and bottom of his jaw. "Inuyasha is going to be so pissed that he didn't come along! The one time he doesn't come!"

Miroku and Sango ignored the fox's commentary. Sango seemed to be the group's designated speaker. Miroku was conveniently writing something out and constantly directing Kasai's attention to it to check his calligraphy. Koinu tried to read it but that was impossible to do easily because of his upside down view of the letter—and it was rude because Sango was clearly about to speak to him about something very important.

"Miroku and I," she began, "have watched you and Kasai this summer and we were hoping that when Inuyasha arrived—"

Shippo interrupted her, snickering. "And he never did because he's back home trying to—"

"Shut up," Akisame growled out, half barking. She had squeezed in beside Koinu, pushing the door the rest of the way open. "Say one more word fox and I'm going to tear your tail off. Don't tempt me either because I'd do it. You shed all over Mom's clothes and she's really fucking tired of it."

Shippo's grin vanished while the others tried to cover their own.

"As I was saying," Sango went on, clearing her throat. "Miroku and I hoped to discuss a betrothal between you and Kasai."

"What?" Koinu blurted, shocked.

"No way," Akisame said, shaking her head. "Koinu's too young, he can't do stuff like that." She stared at her brother with a look of desperation, as if pleading him to agree with her but Koinu did nothing but gawk at Miroku, Sango, and then finally at Kasai.

"It would not be something that would happen for some time yet," Sango assured them. "It was just a matter we felt should be raised between our families."

Kasai gazed into her lap, to her pale hands. All of the color in her skin had rushed to her face, making her blush furiously. She didn't look to Koinu and probably couldn't even if she'd wanted to.

Miroku began rolling up the letter he'd been writing. "That's finished and mostly dried. Shippo? Can I trust you with this?"

"Yeah," the fox mumbled.

"It's only something for you both and Inuyasha and Kagome to consider now that you've both come of age," Sango reiterated.

Koinu watched the letter pass between Miroku and Shippo, bound with a thin twine-like rope. His ears rose and fell, as if shy and afraid of being spotted by the group before him, all crammed into the narrow space that Miroku used as an office. He hadn't considered marriage at all, and had barely started to even think about or be aware of sex. Yet in another year or two…

The awkwardness of the discussion disappeared only minutes later when the group began saying their goodbyes. Sango's eyes filled with tears as she hugged Koinu and exclaimed at how much she was going to miss his help in the kitchen or training the younger boys and Nobe. Miroku complimented him much in the same way. Koinu would have made a fine apprentice, and he hoped that Kagome would train Koinu as if he were miko like herself.

When Koinu found himself standing before Kasai, a bashfulness he had never really felt around her before overcame him. His ears shrank and he stammered. His voice lost its confidence. He snuck quick glances at her and she did the same with him. Kasai's family was speaking with Shippo, seemingly distracted, but Koinu knew that his sister was anxiously watching him, impatient to steal him away.

"Are you going to use Nobe as my stand in now?" Koinu asked, trying to joke and laugh with her. Kasai already looked as if she was fighting the urge to cry.

She shook her head and frowned. "No, he isn't half as skilled as you are. But he wasn't raised as a warrior like you and me."

"Riki then?"

Kasai gave a quick shake of her head again, rippling her long, shiny black hair. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "No one can replace you."

Forgetting his sister's watchful, almost reproachful eyes, Koinu closed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his cheek to hers. He inhaled deeply, an action made not only out of emotion, but also a need to remember her scent, to take it with him and keep it through the winter. "I'll write to you as much as I can."

Kasai nodded against him and sniffled but Koinu could smell no tears. Her hand slid to the middle of his back and she made a fist, pulling on his clothing. "I promise not to grope anyone else," she joked, laughing stiltedly.

Koinu smiled though he knew she couldn't see it while they embraced. He withdrew from her enough to catch her eye. He touched her cheek, cupping it gently, brushing his thumb over the smooth skin. "We'll see each other when the mountain passes open in the spring, okay?"

She nodded and offered him a trembling but genuine smile. "Maybe by then Masu will be back."

"If he isn't by then we can mount up a rescue mission with Kohimu, Tisoki, my parents, your parents, Aki, Nobe—even Riki and Koudo could come and we could storm my evil uncle's castle and make him hand Masuyo over." Koinu grinned sheepishly at the scenario and Kasai laughed at it, just as he'd intended.

"I think we'd fail," she said.

"It would be worth a shot."

"Koinu," Akisame barked.

Shippo had finished speaking to Miroku and Sango and had gone to stand beside Akisame, ready to leave. He was watching the couple with open curiosity and mischief. "We should get going before it gets too cold and it snows in the passes."

Koinu nodded and pulled slowly away from Kasai. He gave a brief bow, ducking down at the waist and thanked Miroku and Sango for their generosity, especially Miroku for his training. As he rose out of the little bow, Koinu glanced a last time at Kasai, taking her image and ingraining it into his memory before turning to leave with his sister and Shippo.

The future was full of possibilities.

* * *

A/N: It's interesting but _Innocence_ was for me all about siblings. I have seen that theme in my writing many times, including the novels I write, which are still, alas, unpublished as of yet. So what next? I have to admit...something with Saya/Masu sounds interesting to me. Oh and Inuyasha's ongoing fight for a new baby. Haha. And Shiroihana. I love her to death. She's so much fun to write.


	43. Epilogue: Fucking Perverts

A/N: This is a long one, but at last! This story can be officially completed. I kinda forgot that I wanted to add this epilogue and operated under the illusion that it was done. Now I have returned and finished it!! I did not quite get the closure I wanted to everywhere, but there's always more to write. Le sigh. Hope this is enjoyable! The beginning here is a Masu/Saya scene. I could write lots more on them and probably will find an excuse to do so...As for IY and his quest to impregnate Kagome, that is ongoing too, with hopefully hilarious results here and possibly in a future story. I have been considering doing a few shorts with IY's family and others. One of these is a reader's suggestion:

1) Aki/Tisoki farce. Akisame tortures her father by making him think, with Tisoki's help, that she's in love. Problem is that Tisoki, the silly hopefuly pervert, falls for her.  
2) Kohimu's wedding. It's gotta happen sometime. Who would get drunk there?  
3) Inuyasha faces the horror of a fertility clinic. Can he manage to make a successful "donation"? Wouldn't a dirty nudey magazine just send him screaming out of a place like that? Just him trying to "donate" by himself is hilarious.  
4) Akisame meets a bear youkai in Kagome's era. The bear knows her and has met her before. Creeped out, Aki ignores what he tells her. Later, in a sudden blizzard, the same bear youkai saves her and does not know who she is... the tricks of time.  
5) Saya outsmarts Shiroihana and runs away, making a fool out of her grandmother. Masuyo journeys with her through the northern regions of the Western Lands. Two lost youths, little more than children, searching for home.  
6) And there's always the thrills and spills of a new baby!

Aside from these characters I have been contemplating and even experimenting with telling Inutaisho's story by way of those who survived him. First Shiroihana. Then Izayoi and Sesshomaru. I really want to tell the story as I see it because it helps explain my Sessmom in _Innocence_ and _Return,_ and it makes a fascinating parallel between past events and _Runaway_ and _Return_. Basically, Sesshomaru acts just like Inutaisho, except without meaning to, in my idea. I can also play with things like, What the hell is Inupapa's real name? How did he meet Izayoi and get her pregnant anyway? Why is Sess an only child before IY is born? Why did he cheat on Sessmom? I have already made up the answers to all those and more in my head. I just don't know how exactly to write it. I have considered telling it in first person (I voice) but that makes it more difficult. I do like a challenge though. Even more challenging was the plan I first had to tell Shiroihana's story with Inutaisho in flashback sections set alongside a present storyline involving Saya, Rin, Sess, Ginrei, Shimo, and Hanone. Basically in that version you get Shiroihana/Inutaisho background with Sess's naming and birth, but also a present day story of how Shiroihana stole Hanone away. Because obviously, she did, though if you will notice, in _Return_ Shimo has said he will adopt Hanone. Yet here in _Innocence_ Shiroihana has her. So...was it a mistake? NO! Anyway, there's also _I Miss You_ to worry about. Ugh. Write in and tell me what you all think.

Disclaimer: I do not own them!

Last Chapter: IY left to get a charm from Hyakka the priestess hoping to find a cure for his infertility. He sent Aki and Shippo to go get Koinu. When they arrived, Miroku and Sango, who had planned to speak to IY in person about a betrothal, had to write a letter to IY and send it through Aki, Shippo, and Koinu to IY instead. Koinu said goodbye to Kasai.

* * *

**Epilogue: Fucking Perverts**

Dawn had brightened the blackness of the nighttime sky into a deep navy blue when Masuyo jolted awake on his futon in Nejiro castle. He gasped, startled by something, and then held his breath, listening. There were no unusual shadows to hint at an intruder, but Masuyo sensed that he was no longer alone within the massive, expansive bedroom that Sesshomaru and Rin had given him.

"Masu?" a small voice called.

Masuyo sat upright though he had already recognized the voice as belonging to Saya. "Saya?" he asked. Through his bleary eyes he saw the young girl standing in the doorway on the other side of his room. The hallway was darker than his room and the scant light that came through the screens on Masuyo's windows allowed him to see Saya's face, twisted with grief. "What's wrong?"

She was dressed in a thin cotton robe, her hair long and messy. She let out a plaintive sound, a whimpered cry. "I had a nightmare."

Masuyo shook his head, fatigued and confused. "Why are you here?" The complete oddness of her arrival reached him anew as he realized that her room, which she sometimes shared with Rin, was in a completely different wing and floor of the castle. She had traversed a lot of ground, including stairways, just to come into his room.

"Mother is with the brat. I couldn't go to her."

"What about Lord Sesshomaru?" Masuyo asked.

"I can't find him."

"Go back to bed. Nightmares can't hurt you," Masuyo reassured her curtly. Looking to the screens he sighed exhaustedly. "Hama is going to come around and wake me up soon. You too." He grumbled, "I'd like to sleep for another five minutes."

"Can I sleep with you?" she peeped, her voice innocent and pleading.

Coming from a household filled with boys, two of them old enough to be married, Masuyo couldn't help but choke a little on her request. It wasn't as if his futon had any shortage of space, but what would Hama think of finding Saya tucked in next to him? And just in the few months Masuyo had gotten to know her, he anticipated that Saya wouldn't be happy to sleep at the other end of his futon. She would be snuggled into him, like a newborn fawn sheltering from a cold spring against its mother's flank. And yet looking at her small form, nonthreatening, simple, and peaceful, Masuyo felt himself relax. Saya had been the only comfort in his experience as a hostage. The only brightness while he was forcibly separated from his real home.

"Come on then," he sighed and pulled at his covers, lifting them up for her. Saya crossed the room in leaps and bounds, her naked feet pattering over the floorboards. She offered him a thin smile and Masuyo realized she had been crying recently. As she pulled the covers around her, Masuyo risked querying, "So…what did you dream?"

"Everyone was dying, turning into dust," she murmured. "Screaming." She wiped at her nose. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Good, me neither." Masuyo closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, trying to find his way back to sleep even as the room began lightening with the increasing dawn.

"Masu?" Saya asked, breaking the short silence.

"What?"

"Did your family ever make you mad?"

Without opening his eyes or shifting his head to clear it of the pillows and the futon, Masuyo answered, "All the time."

"Really?" When Masuyo nodded, Saya extended her question. "How did they make you mad?"

"Everyone's family makes them mad sometimes."

This gave Saya pause. She gazed intently at Masuyo's face, at his closed eyes, the curve of lips and eyebrows, the play of shadows over each contour. "What was it like in your family, Masu? Who made you angry?"

Masuyo cracked the eye that wasn't against the futon mattress to peek at her. He groaned as the realization hit him that Saya did not appear sleepy in the least. "I thought we agreed we'd be resting until Hama gets us up."

"I just want to know real quick…"

Masuyo sighed and rolled onto his back. Watching the ceiling, Masuyo started speaking aloud for Saya in a slow, tired cadence that was only partly influenced by his fatigue. The other was the hot and cold burn of loneliness and separation constricting his throat.

"Riki used to pester me with questions. Kohimu always took the most food and the best of it. And when I complained he told me he was the oldest so it was his right. I hated that. Kasai stole all Mom's time and attention, sometime's Father's too because she was the only girl. And Tisoki was always embarrassing all of us by hitting on the village girls and maids and…well any girl that was the least bit pretty…"

The siblings who had all made him so angry at times now seemed so precious. What a sin it was to realize that he had ever been short with them, or that they had done the same to him, never knowing that he would be stolen away. How could it be that he'd found Riki's incessant questions about the world annoying, or Tisoki's ogling the local village girls irritating? Why couldn't he have been patient with Riki or laughed at Tisoki's antics? And now they were just memories, dreams that made him cry tears of grief and shame.

When he fell silent, blinking against the pressure behind his eyes, struggling to hide his emotions, Saya sighed. "I wish I had your family."

Masuyo forgot his own misery as he picked out Saya's. Suddenly Shiroihana's cryptic words replayed through his mind. "_You will protect my granddaughter, even if it is from herself? I trust you to have the wisdom to see when she will need your guidance."_

He cleared his throat uncertainly. "You wouldn't like it. You can't stand sharing your parents with just one little brother."

"But everyone's the same in your family," Saya objected.

"What are you talking about?" Masuyo asked, reluctantly rolling onto his side and propping his head up with one hand, his elbow pointing into the futon mattress.

Saya was staring straight back at him, her golden eyes crinkled at the edges with distress. "My family is all different from me. They're all _pureblooded._ Pure. But I'm not. I'm a mistake."

Masuyo blew a raspberry at her suddenly using his lips, an aborted laugh. Saya flinched. "Who told you that?" he asked

"No one told me," Saya muttered. "I just know."

"Well then un-know it because it isn't true."

"I'm hanyou. Everyone looks at me and wonders what they're going to do with me when I grow up. Lady Shiroihana," Saya spat her grandmother's name venomously, "calls Uncle Inuyasha shameful and Father says he's a stain on his bloodline. Uncle Inuyasha is hanyou like me. So what does that make me to them? What would _you_ think, Masu?"

Masuyo's elbow began to tingle. He lowered his arm and laid his head down onto it as he continued to regard Saya. "I think they're hypocrites."

"What's that?"

"It means two-faced. They say one thing and then do another." Masuyo yawned, covering his mouth to keep his smelly morning breath out of Saya's face as he exhaled. "Like my dad when he was young. He would tell my mother he was noble and monkish, but then she'd turn around and he'd grab her….ah," he stumbled over what word to use and eventually decided to be vulgar to help make his point. "Ass. He would grab her ass."

"Ass?" Saya asked. "What's ass?"

Masuyo groaned. "Never mind."

"Grabbing someone's…_ass_…" Saya tested out the word, pronouncing it carefully. "Is a bad thing?"

"It's not something a monk should do."

Saya was silent for a time, considering these new words. _Hypocrite_. _Ass._

"Your parents love you, you know," Masuyo murmured, reassuring her. "Babies just take up a lot of time. They're helpless. My little brothers have all been helpless." He sighed and sniffled slightly. "I might have a new brother or maybe a sister. My mom was going to have another baby before I left." When he blinked, Masuyo saw his mother's face, aged and creased with pain as he left her, as he said goodbye. Had losing him made her lose that baby too? He prayed that she was still alive.

"My mom is making another baby too," Saya muttered. "Another _pure_ baby."

"You don't sound like you like it."

"The pure babies aren't really my family," Saya whispered. "They smell different from me. They don't grow up the same way either. Mama and Father don't treat my brother the same way they treat me. They don't spend time with me; they just leave me with you or Hama or send me away with Lady Shiroihana."

Masuyo frowned, recalling Saya's fondness for her younger half-sister, Hanone, who appeared to live permanently with Shiroihana in the Kagestu palace. He drew in a breath. "Saya—you're a hypocrite too because you love Hanone but not your little brother."

Saya blinked. "What?"

"Your sister Hanone is only a half-sister, right?"

Saya nodded slowly. "She has a different mother. Lady Ginrei who's married to Lord Shimofuri in the Middle Lands now." She grinned suddenly. "They had a pup! Mama was very happy to hear it."

"So you love Hanone, your pureblooded half-sister, but not your little brother?" Masuyo pressed. "See, you contradict yourself. If your _pure_ sister is really your sister, then isn't your _pure_ brother your real brother too?"

Saya scowled, appearing wounded as if Masuyo had tricked her. "Meisomaru isn't like Hanone. Hanone has no one else. Lady Shiroihana took her away when she wasn't very big. Hanone is alone, like me. That's why I love her."

"You're not jealous of Hanone. You're jealous of Meisomaru."

"You think I'm lying," Saya muttered, suddenly pouting.

"No, I just want you to see it a different way, that's all." Masuyo sighed and closed his eyes, ready to be done with the conversation. The light was growing, changing, shifting in the room. The sun was rising more and more. It would not be long before Hama walked in and found them together, lying side by side.

"Mama and Father don't trust me with Meisomaru," Saya said. "I never see him. I never play with him. Jaken watches over him like he did for me when I was really little. Lady Shiroihana says he's too little but nothing she says is the truth."

Masuyo laughed, a short, harsh sound that almost alarmed him after Saya's quiet, gentle whispering. He opened his eyes and peered at Saya through the growing light, colored less blue now and more pink. Saya's skin was bright and warm-hued. Her golden eyes swam in moisture, glimmering with unshed tears. She watched Masuyo with mounting confusion and frustration. As her forehead crinkled at the top of her nose, Masuyo imagined reaching out and wiping away the purple crescent moon with his thumb, as if it were nothing more than paint.

"Why is that funny?" Saya demanded. As she frowned, Masuyo saw again her youthfulness, merely a frustrated child. She was close to him in age, yet worlds apart as well. He was a hostage, only a few short years from adulthood, truly alone without his family, without the guild of demon slayers. He could not even continue or complete his training without his brothers, his mother, and his father. Saya, meanwhile was surrounded by her family, separated from them only by an artificial construction, by things like _hanyou_ and _pureblooded_ and _jealousy._ She chose those separations…but Masuyo had done the same too. He had felt jealousy as keenly as Saya. The only difference was that Saya felt a deeper division, hanyou and pureblooded inuyoukai. It was something Masuyo had to acknowledge he could not understand and yet…

He let out a little chuckle and snuffled with a slightly stuffy nose. "I laughed because of what you said about your grandmother. Nothing she says is truthful, you're exactly right."

Saya relaxed immediately and smiled. Her eyelids drooped and her mouth opened in a yawn.

Masuyo followed her lead, closing his own eyes, letting a moment of peace sweep over him before Hama could interrupt it for good. "You should try harder to love him though," Masuyo murmured.

"No," Saya mumbled through sleep-thickened lips.

"Your parents would love it."

"No," Saya repeated, a little stronger this time.

The predawn silence absorbed them, enfolding them in its peace and serenity. A half-dream started in Masuyo's brain. He was writing out characters on a blank, white sheet. With slow, meticulous strokes. He did not see the words or think them, but they emerged as emotion and painted images of his family inside his mind and on the page. He yearned for their laughter and bickering, the petty squabbles, the endless lessons and questions and the same old stories told time and time again. Then the page became his father's sutras. He was sitting beside his brother Tisoki and Kasai, writing out the characters their father needed to purify demons and exterminate spirit infestations.

And then, suddenly, the peace of the moment he glimpsed sitting and working with his brother and sister vanished. A grating sound jerked him out of his sleep. Masuyo found himself staring at Saya, who somehow managed to sleep through the sound. He heard Hama at the doorway, stepping in to wake him for the day. Masuyo sat up to see her, his shoulders slouching as he resigned himself to another long, tedious day without his family, without the training that he had been part of his entire life before now.

"Time to get up, little slayer," Hama called. Her voice was gentle and soothing. Masuyo wondered if she had children of her own hidden away somewhere in the castle.

She moved to the wall across from the window and pulled on the drawers, opening them and selecting his clothes for the day. They were always luxurious, made of silk or embroidered brocade. Masuyo had never had expensive clothes before, only average clothes that he could afford to dirty and tear, and the bodysuit of sharkskin and armor that he donned as a demon slayer.

As she picked out his clothing, holding it in the crook of one arm, Hama turned and at last registered that the boy was not sleeping alone. She frowned. "Saya?"

The little girl groaned lightly and shifted in her sleep.

"She came in here to see me when she had a nightmare," Masuyo explained. He was uncertain, tense. Would Hama be offended? More importantly, would Sesshomaru or Rin think badly of it?

Hama's frown faded into a hesitant smile. "All right then, but her father wants her to be more independent. She should have stayed in her own bed. You tell her that the next time this happens."

Masuyo brought his legs outside of the covers and dropped his head in a small bow. "Of course, ma'am."

"You take these and I'll walk you to another room to dress in. We'll leave Saya to sleep for a few minutes more." She passed the robes, heavy in Masuyo's arms and smooth to the skin, to the young demon slayer.

Hama led him out of his room and down the hall. Masuyo followed her in a daze. She shepherded him into a small dressing room filled with mirrors and makeup stands and then closed the door to offer him privacy. Masuyo shed his nightclothes, little more than a robe and some leggings, and gradually began to slip into the new clothes he had been wearing since arriving at Nejiro castle.

The hakama were thick and a dark gray, comfortable with lots of room, but heavy. With every time movement, Masuyo felt them tug at his waist, weighing him down. They were too long, longer than the pants he was accustomed to wearing casually with his family. He was still tripping on them. He had a silky undershirt, surprisingly heavy, not like the simple cotton undershirts he had worn before. Then came the over shirt with its difficult sash. The design on the over shirt today was black sparrows, flying over his back, sleeves, and chest. The over shirt was orange-brown, the color of fall leaves.

_Autumn is here._

With the over shirt still unsecured by the sash, Masuyo gazed up into the mirrors around him. The young man staring back seemed out of place, unfamiliar to Masuyo. Every day this stranger greeted him. They stared at each other, lost, bereft and lonely, until the stranger's blue eyes darkened with building tears and Masuyo blinked them back, refusing to dishonor himself and his family with such weakness.

The thought that the image in the mirror would become a man in this foreign castle, a hostage, filled Masuyo with despair. The fine clothes that garbed his image did not suit him in his heart.

"Are you finished in there, little slayer?" Hama asked. "No sleeping!"

"I can't tie the sash," Masuyo admitted, as he did every morning.

Hama opened the door and stepped through with a patient smile on her lips. "Now, how many times do I need to show you, Masuyo? I know you're a smart young man, it's not a difficult thing…" She stood before him, pulling and adjusting the over shirt, closing it. Then she secured it with the two different sashes, one which was sewn onto the shirt, the other being thicker, placed there mostly to hide the previous sash and also contrast in color. The larger sash was black and Masuyo had seen Hama tie it many times, but he purposefully ignored her lessons, purging the knowledge, rejecting it.

_I won't need it when I leave here, _he thought stubbornly.

"There we are," Hama crooned. "You will be a very handsome man, young slayer. You look very fine in these robes."

"Thank you," Masuyo replied, numbly.

"So sad, so shy," Hama commented, clucking her tongue. "You must work on that attitude of yours."

"Yes, ma'am."

Hama sighed, realizing he was hopeless. She motioned for him to leave. "Go and get breakfast then. I'll go wake Saya." She scurried out of the room, always busy.

Alone, Masuyo glanced at the boy in the mirrors, dressed so regally but looking so sad. He lifted his shoulders up, squaring them, and strode out the door, resigned to another day within a foreign world. Just another hostage in Japan.

* * *

The charm that Inuyasha had gotten from the priestess Hyakka wasn't working. Inuyasha had only had it for a few days, but Kagome's scent had not changed. Her cycle of fertility plodded on at its normal, steady course. It took a solid three weeks for her to progress through it until she reached the gross end of it where she complained about cramps and bloating and carried the blood smell beneath her other, more pleasant feminine scents. With the new moon bearing down on them, Inuyasha was grumpy, certain that this was another useless month. And after all the effort he had gone to!

Hyakka had been reluctant—to say the least—about parting with the charm. Inuyasha had worked for her gathering herbs and other necessities for two afternoons before she had at last agreed to lend it to him for a week. It was supposedly blessed and had a spell written into it, but when Inuyasha had finally gotten his hands on the thing, it looked like a bit of garbage. The charm was made of a bit of paper and horsehair, woven and wound together. A slivered section of some sacred root was also tied to it. The longer Inuyasha looked at it the more he envisioned one of Kagome's metallic "keychains" from her era. Except this one smelled like dirt and herbs and horse sweat.

Disgusting. Yet Hyakka had sworn by the charm. According to her it had the power to still angry wombs, to stop miscarriage, to increase fertility, to decrease pain during labor. Bits of paper and plant root, bound with sweaty old horsehair. But Inuyasha was desperate with impatience.

Hyakka instructed him to place it beneath their bed, or inside Kagome's clothes after praying over it, making his request to the gods. Inuyasha chose the simplest option: the bed. After mumbling over it incoherently, blushing with embarrassment the whole time even though he was completely alone in the room, he lifted the futon with a grunt and tossed it onto Kagome's side of the bed. He readjusted the sheets and the mattress to hide all evidence of his work and silently warned the gods—whichever ones were in charge of this sort of nasty thing—upon pain of death that they had better make sure Kagome's cycle changed its timing to coincide with the new moon.

It did not. The night of the new moon would be during the last few days before she began bleeding. Those were some of her least fertile days.

He'd seen miracles before, but not in this area.

On the day of the new moon, when his sense of smell was heavily dulled, Inuyasha changed tactics. He went to the futon and lifted it up while Kagome was in the sitting room reading. He grabbed the charm, flattened by the weight of the mattress and the periodic press of Kagome's body over it, and tucked the miserable thing into his clothes. First he placed it between his outer haori and inner shirt, but then reconsidered and moved it inside the inner shirt. It tickled his skin and annoyed him the rest of the day, but Inuyasha stubbornly ignored it.

He had not expected Akisame, Shippo, and Koinu to arrive back from their journey to the slayer's village before the night of the new moon had passed, though he looked forward to it. Without the three of them the house had been dull, too quiet. Inuyasha wondered how they had ever managed without pups to distract them. Alone with Kagome he grew bored and found that picking on her was just a little too amusing.

An afternoon without their pups and Shippo meant that he pestered Kagome almost to the point that she wondered why she had married him. (A/N: Ah, mature relationships.)

After he had retrieved the charm and placed a new wish on it—that _his_ cycle would change or cease to restrict him—Inuyasha sat out at the head of the table, his usual spot as patriarch of the household, and watched Kagome. Eventually, fighting the desire to ask her incessant questions, (What the hell was she reading? What was she going to make for dinner? Did she think it was too hot inside? Had she bothered to mend the hole in his brown hakama yet? Did she need anything from the village? Did the house smell odd or was it just his imagination?) Inuyasha started tapping his claws on the wood of the table.

He admired Kagome's feet. They were bare and calloused from working and walking in the summer while wearing only sandals. He preferred her feet this way rather than the pampered, sensitive things they had been when he had first met her so many years ago. She had crossed her legs at the ankles and her toes were clenching and unclenching. He smirked, recalling that he had seen her toes do that while she was having an orgasm. Why was she doing it now? He glanced at the book and squinted, trying to read it. It was something from her era and the cover art was…embarrassing.

"Hey, yo," he grunted at her.

"What is it, Inuyasha?" Kagome replied, not lowering the book to look at him.

"What the hell are you reading?"

Now she lowered it, laying it against her chest. She cleared her throat and smiled in a way that Inuyasha recognized as an attempt to hide or disguise embarrassment. "Uh…It's about Egyptians."

Inuyasha eyed her suspiciously, not buying her explanation for a second. His ears fell flat atop his head. "Oh really? Then why are there two morons on the cover drooling on each other?"

Kagome laughed at him and rolled her eyes. "You don't know what Egyptians are, Inuyasha."

"I'm not dumb!" He shouted, growling. "I heard of 'em before. But I ain't Miroku."

Kagome smirked knowingly. "All right Inuyasha, what are Egyptians then?"

Heat spread over his face and Inuyasha looked down at the table, at his clawed fingers tapping at the wood. "Ah…women who will do _anything_ for money."

Kagome laughed into her hands, covering her face. "No, no, no…"

"I've seen 'em before! All dressed up and calling out to people…" he fell silent, caught up in a distant memory. He had passed through a middle-sized town once as a young child, newly orphaned, desperate for food. A prostitute had been there, standing outside of perhaps the only brothel of the town. She had seen him and not run or screamed like all of the other women. Instead she brought him scraps and even tried to smile at him. Inuyasha had been smitten with her in an innocent, childish way. He relied on her for food scraps for some time, and eventually when the weather became cold she had allowed him to shelter inside the brothel. But once that happened Inuyasha realized what was really happening inside the brothel. The sights, smells, sounds. They drove him out, but he had never forgotten the woman who had taken him in when every other human would have cursed him or screamed and ran away.

"I'm reading a romance novel," Kagome informed him, still laughing. "It's set in ancient Egypt. You're thinking about prostitutes, Inuyasha, not—"

Suddenly a shape materialized between where Kagome was lounging on some cushions and where Inuyasha was seated at the table. Inuyasha leapt to his feet, groping for his sword as Kagome gasped—but their alarm vanished half a second later at the shape settled into a familiar one. Shippo had teleported into the house. He blinked bright green eyes and smiled with glee. "What was that you were saying, Kagome? Prostitutes…?"

"You little shit," Inuyasha cursed, thoroughly humiliated and infuriated that the night of the new moon would no longer be a private affair—even if it was useless—and that his senses had dulled to the point that he could not smell Shippo or his pups. He readjusted Tetsusaiga and let out a long breath, trying to relax.

"Great to see you too, Inuyasha!" Shippo peeped. His smile had not diminished. His teeth gleamed. He was crouched on all-fours and, dressed in tawny brown and green, resembled a very self-satisfied frog with red hair. "If you're already this mad just by seeing me, you're going to have a heart attack when you hear what Koinu has to tell you!"

"What is this?" Kagome asked, setting her book aside completely.

Inuyasha growled and got to his feet, catching his knee on it and yelping with irritation and pain. "Dammit all. Fuck."

"Inuyasha," Kagome scolded, using her tone only.

"I'm going to go make sure Koinu and Aki get in fine," he told her through gritted teeth, ignoring the lingering pain. _That_ would bruise. Tonight was not a night for hurting himself.

He left Shippo and Kagome in the sitting room and marched through the kitchen. He had left the front door open, encouraging the early evening airflow to pass through the house. Before he had reached the veranda, Inuyasha could already see Koinu and Akisame climbing over the wall together. He felt pride rise within him, distracting him from the throb of his knee and the irritation at Shippo's abrupt entrance. Koinu and Akisame worked as one well-oiled unit, helping one another over the wall, watching out for each other. Akisame was still dressed as a boy, but Inuyasha could not see her as a boy, only as his daughter, and it was remarkable how much she resembled Kagome.

He moved out onto the veranda and leaned on the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited for his children to cross through the yard and reach him. He tuned his ears to them, trying to overhear their conversation. Their words came only gradually, dulled by the fading of his inuyoukai blood with the disappearance of the moon.

"I can make diamonds now, you know," Akisame was saying. "Dad's taught me a lot."

"Hand-to-hand?" Koinu asked, ears flicking.

"Not as much. He's so much stronger than I am…"

"Kasai could teach you." Akisame made a face when he said this and Koinu amended it a moment later before they reached the steps. "I could do it too. We have all winter and early spring."

"Koinu…" Akisame started and then stopped as they both lifted their heads and saw their father waiting with a somber look on his face. Akisame grinned with feigned childish innocence and leapt over the stairs, colliding with her father and making him yelp as they both nearly fell over.

"Aki! What the—"

"Daddy!" she squealed, suddenly girlish and immature. "I missed you! But we're safe, see? _I'm safe._ I was just fine all on my own. I stayed dressed up like a boy and even all the idiot slayers believed I was a boy. Feh, stupid humans…"

Inuyasha sighed and frowned, though his eyes were compressed with amusement. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, you survived so you're ready to go and fight monsters and shit, right?"

At the bottom of the stairs, Koinu was silent, smiling softly while his ears rose and fell, as if shy. His blue eyes were filled with uncertainty and the muscles along his spine were taut with nervousness. _How will Father react to a betrothal?_

"Are you hungry?" Inuyasha demanded, glaring critically at both pups. "Your mother has been sitting around reading garbage. I think it's time she made us some food."

"Ramen would be great," Akisame said, smacking her lips for dramatic effect.

Akisame's antics both amused and annoyed Koinu, but by their father's continued nonchalance he guessed correctly that Shippo had not managed to spill the beans yet.

"Get inside," Inuyasha growled with a show of false irritation when he saw Koinu still lingering at the bottom of the steps. "Did you forget that this is your house, pup?"

"No," Koinu replied, grinning lopsidedly, enjoying his father's halfway good-humor while it lasted. He ascended the stairs and followed his father and sister indoors, leaving the door ajar. Inuyasha had his arm draped over Akisam's shoulders, hugging her close, possessively. Koinu's smile widened into a small grin as he realized that they had bonded. Inuyasha probably still saw his daughter as younger than she really was, but it was natural for fathers to idealize their daughters.

When they entered the sitting room, the proverbial shit hit the fan.

First Inuyasha released Akisame and she went and took a spot next to Shippo at the table. The moment she was away from Inuyasha, with her back to him, her face fell, becoming sour with anticipation. She glared at Shippo next to her, aware of the fox's snickering.

Kagome was holding Miroku's letter, suggesting the betrothal. Her eyes were wide but she was smiling with something akin to excitement.

"Oi," Inuyasha said, announcing himself. "Kagome—Ramen. Aki said she's hungry. I can't smell worth…" He drifted off, at last noticing that she was very heavily distracted, and not by her book of Egyptian smut anymore. "What is that?"

"It's from Miroku," Kagome told him. She blinked and lowered the letter. Her voice revealed her uncertainty at the prospect of communicating its contents to her husband.

"Well, what's it say?" Inuyasha demanded, losing patience swiftly.

Behind him, Koinu slunk like a dog with his tail between his legs, taking a seat at the table as if waiting for a meal when in reality he was waiting for Inuyasha to violently explode. Akisame threw him a mildly sympathetic glance while Shippo stayed fixated on the scene unfolding between Inuyasha and Kagome.

"Well," Kagome said. Then she stopped and peered passed her husband to Koinu. "Koinu?"

The pup's ears pricked up but he did not meet her gaze. His cheeks had flushed a bright, brilliant red. Inuyasha turned at Kagome's direction change and scowled in mounting frustration and he registered the knowing undercurrent in the room and realized at last that his son was acting _off._

"What's the matter?"

Koinu recalled Sango and Miroku's praise when he had been leaving them. _"It's only something for you both and Inuyasha and Kagome to consider now that you've both come of age,"_ Sango had said. _I have come of age,_ Koinu told himself. A man did not hide, he made decisions, he faced them, even when they were difficult. Although he still felt too young to consider marriage and betrothal, the thought of Kasai being involved with someone else, even only theoretically with a betrothal or some such thing, pained him.

He lifted his head and gazed between his mother and father, drawing a long, deep breath to steady his nerves. He launched into it and was startled by how steady his voice was. "Father, the letter is from Miroku. He and Sango felt that since Kasai and I have both come of age it might be wise to begin considering a betrothal."

Inuyasha had listened to his son's words carefully, with a blank expression. As the meaning sank into his brain, at about the speed it takes for snow to melt on one's hand, his ears snapped erect and his face twisted into a comical bewilderment. When Koinu had finished speaking he was silent. Then, finally, he made a sound that could only barely be interpreted as a word: "Huh?"

"Inuyasha," Kagome started and the aforementioned hanyou swung his head around to stare dumbfounded at her now. "Miroku is suggesting that Kasai and Koinu get married."

"Yeah, I got that," Inuyasha snapped. "Stupidest thing I ever heard."

"I don't think it's stupid at all!" Kagome exclaimed. "And I don't think Miroku and Sango thought that either."

Inuyasha's ears flattened instantly. He jabbed a finger at Koinu. "He's too fucking young! Has everyone gone fucking crazy around here?"

"I'm sixteen," Koinu reminded him, stiffly, mildly insulted at being spoken of in the third person as if he was not present while Kagome and Inuyasha argued. More than that was the sting of Inuyasha's tone. Koinu agreed silently that he was too young for _marriage_, but Inuyasha's tone hinted that Miroku and Sango had taken leave of their senses by suggesting such a thing, as if they had tried to make a match between two very young children, preteens.

Inuyasha turned one ear toward his son, acknowledging his addition physically before at last regarding and responding directly. He glared viciously at his son, trying to cow Koinu with his eyes. "You're too young."

"The law in this era says he's reached adulthood," Kagome pointed out.

"The law's wrong!" Inuyasha shouted. He waved his arms up and down suddenly, like a bird trying to fly.

"As an adult I can make my own decisions," Koinu said. He refused to flinch when Inuyasha leveled the same vicious glare and snarled lip at him a second time. "And I am not opposed to the betrothal."

"Of course you're not!" Inuyasha huffed. He paced, his haori sleeves and hakama billowing in the force of the wind he created with his frantic movement. "You're mind has been clouded by her. By that fool monk Miroku."

"How old were you when we met, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked soundly and with maddening calmness in the face of her husband's fury.

"Feh," he grunted. "I don't fucking remember that."

"Oh yes you do," Kagome said, stern. "You weren't much older than Koinu is now. Were you old enough to be betrothed then?"

"Hell no!" he spluttered, spitting and getting closer to her with a bristling, rigid posture. Then he made a loud sound, almost a crowing of triumph. "See! There! That proves it. I wasn't old enough at Koinu's age so—"

"Hush." Amazingly, though Inuyasha stopped, frozen and glaring, he fell silent at her order like a well-trained dog. Kagome leaned forward in her seat, lowering her voice. "But at that same age you had already decided you loved Kikyo enough to die for her. To do anything for her. To become human for her. That sounds pretty close to knowing you would have wanted to marry her when you were ready. Does that sound more like it?"

Inuyasha pulled back from her as if she had struck him across the face. He growled and blustered, but none of the noises passing through his lips could be interpreted as words. The answer, though he did not give it properly, was apparently a very solid _yes._

Koinu beamed, meeting his mother's clever gaze once briefly before Inuyasha pounced, snarling and nearly barking with outrage. He barged passed Akisame, barreling her over, knocking her into Shippo and crouched over the table, staring into Koinu's face. This time, in spite of himself, Koinu cringed and blinked with shock at his father's sudden move, thinking for sure that his father had lost his mind and was going to attack him. But Inuyasha stopped and only sniffed loudly at Koinu for a moment and then said, "You'll never be left alone with her. Someone will always be there, watching you. Every fucking minute of every fucking day. You keep your hands off her and she keeps her ass-grabbing mittens off you too, got that?"

"Inuyasha," Kagome hissed. "Leave him alone."

The hanyou pulled back and stormed off, stomping his feet as he vanished down the hall.

Koinu blinked, stunned into muteness. Inuyasha's confrontation had seemingly even managed to scare all the thoughts and emotions out of his head.

"Wait," Shippo said, breaching the silence. "What just happened? Was that Inuyasha giving his _permission?"_

"No fucking way," Akisame muttered.

"Akisame," Kagome scolded, sighing and rolling her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you…"

"The rest of our lives. That's how long, Mom." Akisame folded her arms on the table and rested her head on them. She peered up at her brother, an odd expression of sadness warping the shape of her eyes and mouth.

"Did Inuyasha just—"

"In a way, yes," Kagome murmured, answering the kit at last. "He'll brood for a while. We'll talk about it and in the morning he will think more rationally about it." She sighed, falling silent in thought for a time before speaking in a cautious, lowered voice. "You know, Inuyasha never had a father himself. He took to it so easily when you were all little. Now it's so hard for him. He doesn't know how to act, what to think."

"Poor Dad," Akisame whispered, more to herself than anyone else. Koinu watched her and his mouth twitched downward, souring.

Koinu stood without warning and headed for the hallway, following Inuyasha.

Three pairs of stunned, dumbfounded eyes trailed after him, filled with shock. When he had vanished into the hall after the enraged hanyou, all three called after him with alarm.

At the end of the hall, Koinu found his parents' room empty. Like his father, the new moon had dulled his senses somewhat, but he could guess where Inuyasha had gone. The windows were open, the shutters thrown wide and a faint breeze rolled in, smelling crisp with autumn. Koinu crawled through the narrow space, awkward and uncomfortable and fell flat in a heap on the other side. His nose had nearly landed in a footprint—Inuyasha's. The tracks curled around the edge of the house, toward where the water pump was and the little pavilion that they had set up long ago for practice sparring.

He found Inuyasha right where he would have expected. The hanyou was high in the boughs of a tree that had often featured in their games when Koinu and Akisame had been small children. He had his back to the house, facing outward to the flow of the dry autumn grass in their backyard. Koinu had collected ticks in there, picking them off and then marveling at the spot of blood they left behind. Akisame ate them for him, crunching them between her strong teeth. Now the field seemed desolate, lonely.

Koinu stood at the foot of the tree and stared up. He tucked his hands inside his sleeves, keeping them warm against the chilly air. "Father?"

Inuyasha jerked his head, his ears flicked. Koinu had caught the brooding hanyou by surprise. "What?" his father asked, croaking.

"I wanted to thank you for your permission. One day I would like to have your blessing as well." He stopped and began to stammer, moving his lips without making sound, searching for words that would calm Inuyasha. "It isn't as if Kasai and I would marry next summer. I—I'm not ready for that, just like you said."

Inuyasha shifted in the tree, making it wobble slightly. The leaves chattered. Then, abruptly, the hanyou dropped straight to the ground, thumping loudly and sending up a small cloud of dirt clods, dust, and grass. He regarded his son sternly, scowling deeply, though his ears only swiveled up and down, rather than staying flat.

At last he spoke, starting with a grunt. "Feh, Koinu. Are you _sure_ about this?" He took a step forward and seemed tall, huge and authoritative. "It's serious shit! You can't just back out of it."

"I have all winter to think about it," Koinu replied. "In a few years I'll be ready." He paused and then dropped his gaze to the ground, staring at his father's bare feet, scuffed by the tree bark and smudged by dirt. "I want to protect Kasai. I want to keep her safe."

Inuyasha cocked his head to one side, watching his son with a quizzical but contemplative look. Koinu was very different from his father in personality, very even and levelheaded. To Inuyasha Koinu's emotions and reading them, puzzling them out, was as impossible a task as reading a newspaper in a foreign language with no previous lessons of experience. He feared losing his children and felt a desperate desire to keep them close to him, under his control and careful watch. He tried to see Koinu with a stranger's eyes and managed only to catch small glimpses, sneak peeks at what the rest of the world saw. A young man—no, not a man, not human at least in appearance—with white hair, bright blue eyes filled with gentleness and care. When had his clothing started fitting him so well? When had his shoulders widened, his fingers thickened from their childish proportions? When had he started fitting into his ears?

The line between boyhood and manhood was so obscure, so arbitrary. Inuyasha felt his shoulders sinking with melancholy. Had it really been sixteen years since he had first held his son, newborn, pink-skinned, and smelling of milk? And now he stood before Inuyasha at nearly the same height, pleading in his stance and with his eyes, asking Inuyasha to accept him as both a son and something more than a boy. A young warrior with little experience and much to learn, but a warrior nonetheless.

Inuyasha's throat tightened and he swallowed, fighting the surge of emotion. His ears fell backward and he did not smile or break out of his frown. If he sis, he would shed the tears that clamored to be released. As he always had, Inuyasha chose irritation over the possibility of expressing weakness.

He jabbed a finger at Koinu, making the pup glance up at him and blink, ears flattening as he expected another barrage of warnings and threats. Instead Inuyasha said, "I don't know what the hell that monk wants for Kasai in a bride price, but he ain't getting anything but diamonds. Hell, I don't know anything about fucking bride prices." He paused as a fresh idea struck him. "Wait, doesn't _he_ have to pay _me?"_

Koinu's ears were swiveling independently and gradually his lips changed into a light smile. "You mean a dowry…?"

"Whatever." Inuyasha waved a hand absently.

"I don't think we have to worry about that until spring at the earliest." Koinu watched his father, detecting Inuyasha's internal struggle to control himself and his emotion. Unlike Inuyasha, Koinu felt more than comfortable expressing his own. He broke out into a grin and stepped forward to hug Inuyasha but the hanyou yelped as if in fear and tried to escape.

"Men don't hug!" Inuyasha snapped, but he was suddenly sniffling and staring intently at the side of the house to hide his own emotion. "Do you want to be a man or not? How many years have I been telling you this?"

Koinu had not stopped grinning. Rather than hugging his father he bowed from the waist up. "I apologize."

"Fine then," Inuyasha told him, noticeably awkward. He reached up and touched his ears, checking to see if they were still there. "That damned sun is going to set soon. We should get inside."

"Of course."

"Wipe that damnable grin off your face!" Inuyasha snapped. "Men don't grin either."

They started walking side by side, circling around the house. "I think I have seen you grin many times, Father," Koinu said.

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered. "You have not."

* * *

That evening, after the family had retired to bed, Inuyasha and Kagome stayed up talking quietly, discussing the day's events. In his human form Inuyasha was relaxed and much more expressive. He managed, with difficulty, to explain his difficulty with the idea of Koinu's betrothal, his reluctance to see his children striking out, leaving him behind.

Kagome, after sharing so many years with him, understood that this was part of his nature. She comforted him, laying his head in her lap as they lounged together on their shared futon. She stroked his black hair, massaged his scalp, and traced the lines of his now human ears.

"You mustn't see it as Koinu leaving us. He isn't doing that. He will always be our son. Instead, Inuyasha, think of it like this: You have succeeded. _We_ have, together. We've raised a fine, beautiful son. And we have Akisame too. And another baby on the way."

Without pause, Inuyasha replied from her lap where his eyes were closed, his face relaxed. "You're not pregnant." As a hanyou he might have growled, but as a human it was a gentle reminder, tinged with pain.

"I know. But we haven't tried everything yet."

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered, opening his eyes, tinted blue now in his human form. He glared lightly at her, too relaxed and too human to muster up his usual ire. "I dunno about you Kagome, but I'm all outta options." He fumbled with one hand inside his inner shirt and pulled out the fertility charm with its smelly horsehair which he could no longer, thankfully, smell. "I got this from Hyakka. She _swore_ it would work. Piece of shit."

He tossed it away before Kagome could hold it. She watched the charm land and smiled sadly. "I don't think that's the way to fix our problem. I think it's actually pretty easy."

"The last time I checked…" Inuyasha grumbled but didn't bother finishing the sentence.

"It would only take a doctor's visit really. And, ah, some money. And—well…"

Inuyasha's face had transformed, brightening. He sat up and rolled onto his stomach to see her better through the dimness of the room, lit by only two candles. "One of the _doc-tors_ in your era could fix it?"

Kagome was smiling nervously. "Yeah. I think so. I would say we could almost do it ourselves, but I don't know how to store, ah, that sort of thing here." She laughed embarrassedly.

Inuyasha gleaned from her reaction and difficulty explaining that there was something odd or unpleasant involved. "So what do we have to do?"

"Make an appointment, go in. I would get checked out to make sure it would be all right. They have fertility clinics in my era, they cost a lot of money but many people who could never have had children naturally do have children with their help. They, ah, will want to look at you too."

"Look at me?" Inuyasha questioned, skeptically.

"Yeah. Uh, _examine_ you."

"No fucking way," Inuyasha huffed, alarmed the second he caught her meaning.

"It isn't a big deal! We could cover your ears…or I could just try and get them to use a sample. Maybe. That might work. Then you wouldn't have to go in at all. I would just go in at the right time and the doctor would do it."

"Do what? What the hell are you talking about?" Inuyasha blustered, confused and disturbed.

Kagome sighed and covered her face with one hand. "Okay, Inuyasha. The problem is that you only have one night—_this night—_once a month that your…your ah…" She sighed, realizing that she was going to offend and disgust Inuyasha no matter what she said. She plunged forward anyway, hoping he would be too busy listening to notice _exactly_ what she was talking about in such scientific, graphic terms. "Your semen is only fertile one night a month. If you could give me a sample and I could get it to the doctor and he could store it…"

"What the fuck?" he blurted, staring at her with horror. And he had thought the charm was nasty! "What the hell's the matter with people in your era!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "This helps a lot of people in my time, Inuyasha. Men come in and donate all the time. Some places even pay them."

Inuyasha looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or vomit.

Kagome decided to end her explanation; it was distracting him from the real point, the real reason why she had brought it up. "Forget how it works, Inuyasha. Just listen to me: They could help us. If I just research it a little, I might be able to store it myself, then we wouldn't need a doctor…"

Inuyasha was silent but his disgust had faded, replaced with a skeptical but thoughtful expression. "I ain't going to one of those places, Kagome," he muttered.

"I just want to learn about it. It could really help us…" Then she leaned forward, challenging him. "Do you want to have another baby or not? If this is the only way…"

"For fuck's sake!" Inuyasha cursed. "I'd rather eat the damned charm. Horsehair and all."

"If it's the only way," Kagome repeated, warningly.

"Yeah, fine, sure." He paused, glaring. "But it's not."

"Probably not. You're right." Kagome shifted, crawling over the bed to the nightstand where the candles were burning, flickering. "I think it's time for us to get some sleep," she murmured.

As she grabbed the first candle and puckered her lips to blow it out, Inuyasha grunted and started rustling behind her. Kagome blew out the candle and set it down, wafting at the oily blue smoke that climbed into the air from the wick. She knew without looking that Inuyasha was stripping out of his clothes, tearing them off like a child preparing hastily for a bath. He slept naked, so it did not necessarily mean he had any less than innocent plans, but…

Before she blew out the final candle, Kagome turned and glanced back at her husband, smirking. He had shed his haori, inner and outer and was fumbling with a frown at the ties to his hakama. In the warm candlelight his skin appeared to glow. Shadows of ribs leapt out, along with the sharpness of one nipple. Black hair, smooth and shiny, slithered over his shoulders.

"Inuyasha?"

"What?" he asked without looking at her.

She chuckled and turned back to the candle, the flickering orange-gold of the flame. "Never mind."

She blew on it in a little puff and the light vanished, plunging the room into darkness. As she slid beneath the covers, Inuyasha at last finished undressing and joined her, snuggling up to her almost childlike, draping a leg over her knees possessively and burying his face into her neck and shoulder.

"Kagome?" he called, gently.

"Yes?"

"You smell like candle smoke."

"Thanks, Dog Boy."

He cleared his throat and Kagome felt the vibrations through her shoulder. "So, can I _examine_ you?" Then he growled to himself—lighter than usual with his human vocal cords. "Fucking perverts everywhere."

Kagome laughed and stroked his back, feeling the powerful muscles. "You could give me that sample tonight if you wanted," she joked.

"Fucking perverts," Inuyasha groaned. He sat up suddenly, grinning though Kagome couldn't see it in the darkness. He grabbed her, pulling her under him and then straddling her. Kagome squirmed and giggled. "What is it you always say?" he asked. "Can't beat 'em, pound 'em instead?"

"If you can't beat them," she said, "join them."

Inuyasha laughed, deep-throated and lusty. "Fuckin' pervert." He leaned over her, kissing her, tasting her skin. "I love you, y'know," he muttered, almost absently, speaking against her neck.

Kagome ran her fingers through his hair and smiled, breathing deeply, filled with calm and peace. "I love you too, Dog Boy."

* * *

Endnote: There are things I feel I haven't closed appropriately, and that sucks, but as we discussed in my Faulkner class (Faulkner made up his own county in Mississippi with its own history from conception through Civil War, WWI, etc.) we (a writer, me) work to present reality, the problem is time. Stories are natural, but closure is not. A noticeable beginning, middle, and end are constructs of the writer. So could I have reached a fuller closure? Yes. Would it have been better/more realistic? Maybe, but also no. So, the places I feel didn't have closure: IY and Kagome trying to get pregnant (obviously, but that's not as much of an issue) and some sibling things, like Kohimu relating better to his younger siblings, but most importantly, Akisame. I wanted to bring in a moment of reasurance, bonding, between her and Koinu, a reaffirmation of their connection and love for each other as siblings. She loves him so much, and just like IY, seeing him grow is painful. I know how she feels. It's painful to see myself gradually leaving my own family home, my own siblings, but like Koinu, like all children, I have to fledge and leave the nest eventually. And in many ways, that's what this story was about.

Sad that it's over...But there's always more to blab about! Send me your thoughts and ideas! I am always eager to hear them!


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